The Collin County Observer™

Today, the Commissioners court appointed the members of the Civil Service Commission.

The Sheriff's Department employees Civil Service Commission is made up of three commissioners.

The Commissioners Court nominates one commissioner, one by the Sheriff, and the District Attorney.

The Commissioners Court appointed:

James McCarley

Sheriff Terry Box has named James McCarley as the chairman of the Civil Service Commission. McCarley spent 23 years in law enforcement, including serving nearly 11 years as the Chief of Police for the City of Plano. Later, he was a former Assistant City Manager-Director of Public Safety for Plano. McCarley has served as the Chairman of ViewPoint Bank, and also as Executive Director of the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition from 1996 until his retirement in 2007, including the interim Executive Director of the North Texas Tollway Authority.

The Commissioners Court named Pat Gallagher unanimously in a nomination by Cheryl Williams. Gallagher is a Plano city councilman and the former chairman of Plano's Civil Service Commission until 2011. For most of his career, Gallagher has been a business executive. After he retired, he joined the Addison Police Department, where he now serves as police officer/supervisor.

District Attorney Greg Willis named Joy Flavill to the commission. Flavill is an office manager at a doctor's office. Flavill is also Collin County GOP activist and a contributor to Willis's campaign.

The Civil Service Commission will be chaired by Chief McCarley, "and the members will draw lots to determine and serve two year terms on a staggered basis (Two members appointment will expire one year and the other member the following year)."

The previous post below details the duties and scope of the Civil Service Commission.

Bill

On September 20th, the employees of the Collin County Sheriff's Department voted to establish a Civil Service Commission. The vote was 296 for, and 35 against.

The Civil Service Commission will be made up three commissioners. The County Commissioners' Court will appoint three commissioners. County Administrator, Bill Bilyeu has send the county commissioners the details of the process: "The Commissioners Court will appoint the three members of the Commission with the District Attorney, Sheriff, and Commissioners Court each nominating one of the members. The Sheriff will select the Chair and the members will draw lots to determine and serve two year terms on a staggered basis (Two members appointment will expire one year and the other member the following year)."

2007, the Collin County Deputies Association was had a series of conflicts with County Judge, Keith Self. The budget hearing last year ignited a conflagration over Judge Self's proposal to cut the county employees' retirement benefits.

Three days before the deputies Civil Service election, Judge Self voted against the 2012 budget - he was opposed to the 2 tier salary approved; 3% for sworn officers, and 2% for the remainder of the county employees. In a large part of the Deputies Association pushed for the Civil Service system to try to protect themselves from Keith Self.

Sheriff Terry Box did not actively oppose the Civil Service system.

The Texas Local Government Code gives the Civil Service Commission:

"Sec. 158.035. POWERS OF COMMISSION. (a) The commission shall adopt, publish, and enforce rules regarding:

(1) selection and classification of employees;
(2) competitive examinations;
(3) promotions, seniority, and tenure;
(4) layoffs and dismissals;
(5) disciplinary actions;
(6) grievance procedures;
(7) the rights of employees during an internal investigation; and
(8) other matters relating to the selection of employees and the procedural and substantive rights, advancement, benefits, and working conditions of employees.

(b) The commission may adopt or use as a guide any civil service law or rule of the United States, this state, or a political subdivision in this state to the extent that the law or rule promotes the purposes of this subchapter and is consistent with the needs and circumstances of the department.

(c) In a county with a population of 2.8 million or more, a panel of three commissioners shall preside at the hearing and vote on the commission's final decision in any case involving termination, demotion, or recovery of back pay. A panel's decision is the final decision of the commission for purposes of Sections 158.0351 and 158.037. The commission shall adopt rules prescribing the commission's procedures for assigning members to a panel. A panel may not include more than one member who was appointed to the commission by the same individual appointing authority.

(d) In rendering a final decision regarding a disciplinary action by the department, the commission may only sustain, overturn, or reduce the disciplinary action. The commission may not enhance a disciplinary action by the department."

Bilyeu also explained that, "As a reminder, the Commission’s duties are only related to the direct employees of the Sheriff. Court officers, DA investigators, deputy constables, etc. are not covered by the Commission."

The Commissioners Court is expected to start the process of appointing Civil Service commissioners tomorrow, Monday, October 3.

Bill

Collin County Courthouse Loses Power - Judge Blows a Fuse

At approximately 7:30 a.m. yesterday, the Collin County State District Courthouse went off the electrical grid. The courthouse backup power system came on to provide emergency lighting, but that was it.

Everything else in the courthouse shut down including Odyssey, the expensive software system Collin County uses to manage its court records.

Starting at 8:00 a.m., courteous clerks advised individuals wishing to file documents that they would not be able to do so because of the power failure. Apparently inconvenienced by the inability of the clerks to magically produce the electricity needed to run the Odyssey software, someone must have complained to Judge John R. Roach of the 296th State District Court.

At approximately 8:45, Judge Roach stormed into the Civil Court Clerk’s Office with his bailiff in tow.

Roach exclaimed, “Your customers are my customers!” He angrily proceeded to demand to know why the clerks weren’t accepting any filings. One of the four clerks present calmly explained to the judge the power was off.

Judge Roach wanted to know why a filing couldn’t be accepted and a hand written paper receipt be given to the filer. The judge was informed they didn’t have any paper receipts to give out. Providing a different example of a crisis that would challenge the clerks’ ability to do their jobs, Judge Roach said, “What if the building blew up?” A clerk with nerves of steel responded, “We’d all be dead, wouldn’t we?”

After further discussion concerning the failure of the clerks to perform in the face of a crisis, Roach turned on his heels and left.

The new fortress-like Collin County State District Courthouse gets an “F” in emergency preparedness. In the most common of emergencies, the loss of power, the courthouse could not perform its most basic function.

Contrary to what Judge Roach may believe, the job of fundamental emergency preparedness shouldn’t fall on shoulders of the clerks. Judge Roach was yelling at the wrong people and should apologize to the clerks he publicly berated.

John

NBC KXAS - Planned Parenthood Attacked With Molotov Cocktail
By Greg Janda, KXAS- NBC TV
Wednesday, Jul 27, 2011, Updated 5:25 PM CDT

McKinney fire officials say an overnight blaze at a Planned Parenthood clinic was started by a "Molotov cocktail."

The health center on Eldorado Parkway was attacked Tuesday night around 10 p.m. Firefighters arrived to extinguish the fire and discovered a wine bottle filled with diesel fuel and a rag for a lighter.

Officials say the fire did damage to the exterior of the building, but did not penetrate the building. Investigation into the attack is still ongoing.

The clinic opened in 2008 and has been the site of multiple protests. This is the first serious attack at the location.

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CBS KRLD - Molotov Cocktail Hurled Through McKinney Planned Parenthood
By Matt Goodman, CBSDFW.COM
July 27, 2011 4:31 PM

MCKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) – Someone hurled a glass bottle topped with a flaming rag and filled with diesel fuel through the front door of the McKinney Planned Parenthood offices just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.

The attack left shards of glass littered in front of the office at 1720 Eldorado Parkway and charred the metal door, but Planned Parenthood staffers hurriedly cleaned the mess and still saw patients Wednesday.

“Since we’re seeing patients today and trying to do repair and cleanup as fast as possible, you may not get an idea of the damage done if you go by there today,” said Holly Morgan, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of North Texas.

The Molotov cocktail failed to make it into the actual clinic and no staffers or patients were there, Morgan said.

Though the McKinney location has been the center of controversy in the area since it opened in 2008, Morgan said the attack was unprecedented – none of the 28 north Texas locations have suffered something like this.

And though the McKinney Police Department still has not identified a motive, Morgan said the arson is even more upsetting because the targeted location does not offer abortion services.

“It’s really unfortunate because that site only provides preventative care,” she said. “But until we know from the police, until they figure out what happened, we can’t really say what the motivation was.”

The McKinney location offers preventive services such as breast and pelvic exams, as well as birth control, diabetes screenings, sexually transmitted infection tests, pregnancy testing and emergency contraception. News Radio KRLD reported picketers at the location earlier in the day.

McKinney police has not identified a suspect.

“Ninety-six to 97 percent of what we do –and that’s an audited number – every year for our patients is preventative health care. It’s breast and cervical cancer screening and well women visits,” Morgan said.

“We even give flu shots.”

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Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/texas-legislature/headlines/20110202-texas-businesses-serving-frail-warn-cuts-would-close-their-doors.ece

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News - Austin Bureau
February 2, 2011

read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)

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The needs of thousands of children and adults living with mental and physical disabilities are about to collide with the limitations of the Texas state budget.

Here in the wealthiest county in the state, where some folks would prefer to ignore the unpleasantness of mental or physical challenges, it will be interesting to see how this issue is prioritized by our legislators (including Senator Florence Shapiro who sits on the Finance Committee referenced below)and dealt with on the local level by our county leaders.

angellsmith

From a Collin County press release. Flu vaccination includes protection from both H1N1, and influenza A and B:

Collin County

HEALTH CARE ADVISORY: Nov. 30, 2010

Free flu vaccine for children available; adult doses for $10

(McKINNEY, Texas) - Collin County Health Care will be offering free flu vaccinations for children and discounted flu shots for adults during National Influenza Week, Dec. 5-11.

Flu shots will be administered at 825 N. McDonald Street, Suite 130, in McKinney, from 7:30 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. all week. Adult doses are $10 each, and cash or check is accepted.

The 2010–2011 flu vaccine will protect against an influenza A H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the 2009 H1N1 virus (swine flu) that caused so much illness last season.

If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)

National Influenza Vaccination Week was established to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination, as well as fostering greater use of flu vaccine after the holiday season into January and beyond. The flu is a serious contagious disease that can lead to hospitalization and even death.

Flu-like symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may also have vomiting and diarrhea. People may be infected with the flu, and have respiratory symptoms without a fever.

People at high risk of serious flu complications include young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease and people 65 years and older. Vaccination of high risk persons is especially important to decrease their risk of severe flu illness.

Vaccination also is important for health care workers, and other people who live with or care for high risk people to keep from spreading flu to high risk people.

Children younger than 6 months are at high risk of serious flu illness, but are too young to be vaccinated. People who care for them should be vaccinated instead. For more information regarding the flu please visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/NIVW/index.htm.

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Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/frisco/stories/111610dnmetexide.2375dc7ae.html

November 16, 2010

By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH and MATTHEW HAAG /The Dallas Morning News

read this article at DallasNews.com

The City of Frisco issued a press release also released from Exide: Exide will allow all Frisco residents free blood tests for lead.

********************************************

The following information is distributed from the City of Frisco's News and Information service.

********************************************

***The following information has been released by Exide Technologies, Inc.

Blood Lead Testing Now Available for Residents of Frisco, TX

Frisco, TX – (November 4, 2010) – Exide Technologies has announced that testing for blood lead concentration is now available for all residents of the City of Frisco, at no charge. Exide will be responsible for all expenses incurred for the blood draw and testing. Frisco residents interested in the testing must go to the office of Dr. Vicki B. Davis at 8680 East Main Street, Suite 1E, Frisco, TX, phone number: 972-377-2447. The blood testing can be done by appointment or on a walk-in basis. Please note that walk-ins may have to wait for staff availability. Citizens will be asked to confirm their residency prior to the testing. All blood samples will be sent by Dr. Davis to ACL Laboratories for a lead concentration analysis. Results obtained by ACL will be returned to Dr. Davis. She will contact residents to provide and discuss the results and answer any questions.

“We are offering this testing to all residents of the City of Frisco in order to provide peace of mind regarding blood lead levels,” said Don Barar, plant manager for Exide’s Frisco recycling facility. “I encourage any citizen who has a question about blood lead levels to take advantage of this testing.”

For questions regarding the testing, please contact either Dr. Davis or Susan Jaramillo at Exide, (203) 699-9133.

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DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

By Danny Gallagher, StarLocalNews.com/McKinney Courier-Gazette
October 5, 2010

The tension between Collin County District Attorney John Roach and District Judge Suzanne Wooten grew another notch Tuesday when Roach announced he would pull and re-submit over 100 cases from her court.

Roach said in a released statement that he ordered his office to pull and review more than
100 indictments filed in Wooten's court and resubmit them to another Collin County grand jury due to allegations of biased members that Wooten placed on the jury panel and the appointing commissioners.

Roach, who conducted an investigation into Wooten's election practices to the 380th District Court that ousted incumbent Charles Sandoval before handing the case to a special prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General's Office, claimed the questionable indictments were made by a grand jury selected by Wooten.

A separate grand jury approved the appointment of a second special prosecutor to investigate the Collin County DA's office's conduct in launching their investigation against Wooten. Roach's office recused themselves from the investigation after the Texas Attorney General's took over the case.

Roach alleged in a separate statement that Wooten had stacked the grand jury with questionable appointments including the father of her attorney Pete Schulte of Dallas and a former Collin County DA employee "who has had personal and professional conflicts with my office."

Schulte said Wooten did not directly appoint the members of the grand jury. She appointed commissioners to choose jurors from a sealed document.

Roach pulled the indictments when he discovered that an unidentified aunt of Schulte's served as one of the commissioners on the grand jury panel.

"We have also learned at least one of Judge Wooten's grand jurors, who we believe to be acting independently of the 'special prosecutor,'" Roach said, "has personally contacted at least one person to be a witness for Judge Wooten's grand jury."

Schulte rebuked the allegations made by Roach's office as the last act of a desperate man.

"The DA of Collin County has completely lost it," Schulte said. "He's lost his mind."

Schulte said he recommended her aunt to Wooten as a commissioner for the grand jury panel after Wooten asked him if he knew anyone "in Plano who has a lot of time. I thought of my aunt because she's retired."

He called Roach's decision "unprecedented."

"Basically for the DA to decided without any other determination that a grand jury is not lawful is unprecedented and probably illegal," Schulte said. "The fact of the matter is that taking the time to do away with these cases that he's dismissing and re-indicting or resubmitting is obstruction of justice."

The resubmitted cases represent the distrust that Roach and his office have in Wooten's ability to construct a credible and impartial grand jury, Roach said.

"I took these actions because I have profound reservations about the integrity of the entire process in impaneling Judge Wooten's grand jury and its subsequent actions, which also present serious ethical questions," Roach said. "Neither I, not any other citizen of Collin County can have confidence in the composition and operation of Judge Wooten's grand jury. All persons whose cases are presented to a grand jury have a right to expect, without reservations, that their cases will be considered ethically and within the bounds of the law. I am duty bound to see to it."

Schulte denied the allegations that Wooten tried to stack a grand jury with favorable members.

"If Judge Wooten was going to stack a grand jury, she would have put 12 angry lawyers on that grand jury because it takes nine out of 12 jurors to do anything," Schulte said. "This is all a smoke screen because he's scared. He knows the activity that he and his office have done and he knows he could get indicted. He's trying to cast a shadow of doubt because he has no other recourse."

link to article at StarLocalNews.com....

Nonprofit clinic to treat the poor opens today in West Plano

October 6, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....

Fusing Fear and Data

August 25, 2010
PETER GORMAN / Fort Worth Weekly

In December 2008, State Rep. Lon Burnam had a one-car accident. The Fort Worth Democrat didn’t even get a ticket. Nonetheless, Burnam is convinced that the accident report was passed from local police to who knows what local, state, and federal agencies, via the Collin County North Central Texas Fusion System.

You may have thought fusion these days had mostly to do with cross-cultural cuisine, but in this case the Collin County fusion system is a “remotely accessed data-sharing and analysis system” that involves more than 170 agencies in 16 counties, including Tarrant and Dallas. It’s meant to provide policing agencies, the FBI, Homeland Security, first responders, and health providers with a wealth of information at the touch of a computer keyboard.

According to advocates, such information-sharing systems allow police to do a better job of tracking and apprehending dangerous criminals by giving them information covering a broad area rather than just their own backyard.

But critics aren’t sure that putting that much information — including some that has nothing to do with criminal activity — into the hands of law enforcement is really a good thing. They fear it will lead to racial profiling, the targeting of perfectly legal groups, and even harassment of individuals. One major concern is that information from various sources will be sent up the line to federal agencies, which will use it to target undocumented residents for deportation — and that the result will be a wedge driven between Latino communities and local police.

“When that happens, people often won’t even report criminal activity or come forward as witnesses to criminal activity,” said Aerin Toussaint, a policy analyst with Texas Impact, a grassroots network that includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim individuals and institutions. The group works for public policies that enhance freedom and justice.

“I am tremendously concerned about the potential violation of privacy” with fusion systems, Burnam told Fort Worth Weekly. “I have been trying through the Open Records Act to discover what they have gathered on me. I know they gathered something in the context of my having been the director of the Dallas Peace Center for 10 years. And I want to know what it is.”

Fusion centers were started in 2004 as part of the post-9/11 anti-terrorist backlash. They are funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which developed the idea of creating multi-jurisdictional agencies that would share information in order to track and prevent terrorist and criminal activity. However, the federal government offered no strict guidelines on how the centers would be run, leaving that up to the local jurisdictions.

The first such center in Texas was opened in 2004 by the Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. Since then several others have been created, including the one in Collin County that covers North Texas. All the participating agencies supply data to that “bank.” Dallas, which has its own center, provides only limited information to the Collin County center.

The result thus far has been the creation of overlapping data centers with different missions, each run independently — and some taking the kind of actions that civil libertarians have feared all along.

The Collin County fusion center, for instance, sent out a “prevention awareness bulletin” in February 2009, ordering law enforcement authorities to report on all civil rights meetings involving Muslims and to gather and pass along information on any anti-war groups in the 16-county jurisdiction. The ability to “order” local jurisdictions to supply information comes from the center’s federal mandate.

It turned out that the bulletin was not authorized by the Collin County head of Homeland Security, but was sent out by a computer worker in the center. [Bill notes: actually the 'computer worker' was Dr. bob Johnson, the prime contractor to the Fusion Center and the son of Congressman Sam Johnson]

In the months that followed, everyone from the ACLU to religious groups objected to it. In the wake of the scandal, center officials center limited the scope of their data collecting — but many of the agencies in its jurisdiction continued to pass along the information demanded.

“This memo is not a plea for legitimate intelligence, and seems to endorse discrimination against Muslims,” Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said in a press release. “The idea that the tolerance advocated by the groups being targeted would be treated as a menace to American security demonstrates a disregard for civil liberties and a disdain for democracy itself.”

The Collin County fusion system hasn’t released another such bulletin since then.

According to Lt. Todd Thomasson of the Dallas Police Department, commander of that city’s fusion center, other centers have “passed out documents that suggest that if a person has a certain bumper sticker they might be a terrorist and other misleading things.” But he said the Dallas City Fusion Center — officially called Metro Operations Support and Analytical Intelligence Center, or MOSAIC — does not participate in that sort of grab-bag information gathering.

“Dallas is part of the NCTFS, but our center only provides the Collin County fusion center with information related to criminal activity,” he said. “A lot of fusion centers around the country are multi-agency. We’re not. We are a tactical fusion center, focused on crime. We share information as it relates to criminal activity and nothing else.”

Thomasson said that while his staff has the ability to gather data from the NCTFS, neither the Collin County center nor any other agency can look into the Dallas center’s computers. “Other agencies can call us for information, but there would have to be a criminal predicate before we would release information,” he said.

Asked whether he had run into any issues with the Dallas Hispanic community, so easily targeted because of the number of undocumented aliens, he said, “We view that as strictly a federal issue.”

The Fort Worth Police Department did not respond by deadline to questions about what information they pass along to the Collin County center.

Hector Carrillo, civil rights chair of the Fort Worth LULAC chapter, said, “We have not seen any upheaval with regard to the Fort Worth Latin community from the Collin County fusion program. Yet.”

“The reason that one fusion center might target a specific race or group of people and another won’t is that different fusion centers have different missions,” said Bill Baumbach, a printing company manager and reporter who writes for D Magazine’s FrontBurner blog and runs his own blog, the Collin County Observer. “They all have the same basic concept, which is to take information from different databases to make them relational. But what data they choose to collect and what data they send on to the FBI and Homeland Security is where they differ. The Department of Public Safety’s Texas Fusion System in Austin is one of the most frightening.”

The Texas Fusion Center shares information with the Texas prison system, Homeland Security, federal treasury and immigration agencies, the Air and Army National Guard, and a host of other police and non-police agencies.

Baumbach said the DPS center also collects personal information every time a police officer talks with someone, including drivers who are pulled over and issued nothing beyond a warning. “That is gathering information on people who were not only not convicted of a crime — they weren’t even charged with one. That’s very frightening to me,” he said.

“Think of what can go into those databases. The Collin County Sheriff’s Department has bought handheld license plate scanners, and they walk around certain parking lots recording those plates. And that information is fed into the fusion center. The question is, should the government collect that information — where your car was at 3 p.m. yesterday, for instance? I don’t think so. But these fusion databases have escaped scrutiny because they wave the flag of national security.”

Because there is so little federal oversight, he said, “They’re all mavericks. You can have a good one in Dallas but one that overreaches in Collin County and affects millions of people.”

Many groups have been calling for oversight and transparency regarding the centers, almost since they began operating in 2004. In a 2009 press release, the ACLU noted that it had predicted that the “complete lack of oversight over [fusion centers’] activity would lead to violations” of civil rights.

Part of the problem, Baumbach said, is that the Collin County fusion center’s top official reports to the county administrator, who is ultimately responsible to the county commissioners. “Are the county commissioners capable and willing to set constitutionally acceptable espionage-gathering guidelines? I don’t think so.”

read the rest of this article at Fort Worth Weekly....

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities - Panel Discussion

Tuesday, August 3rd – 7pm
Collin College McKinney Conference Center
2200 W. University Drive McKinney TX 75070

On Tuesday night, August 3rd at 7 pm, The Healthcare Committee of Collin County will host a Panel Discussion on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. This Educational Forum will provide some of the latest information and services for those needing support with Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger’s Syndrome), intellectual disabilities and related conditions.

The panel includes:

• Gary Moore - President and Co-founder, nonPareil Institute
• Clay Boatright - President, ARC of Dallas and Vice President, ARC of Texas
• Nagla Moussa - President, Collin County Chapter of the National Autism Association (formerly Autism Society of Collin County)
• Charmaine Solomon - Chairman of the Board and Co-founder, My Possibilities
• Randy Routon - President, LifePath? Systems, MR Authority in Collin County

The Healthcare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) is a nonpartisan grassroots organization focused on ensuring access to quality healthcare for all residents in Collin County. Anyone with concerns about healthcare in this community is welcome to join and learn more about what services are available in Collin County and where we need to advocate for more.

This is the, I believe 4th in a series of panel discussions on the healthcare needs of Collin County residents. Previous discussions have focused on mental healthcare, mental illness in Collin County jails, and the role/future of the non-profit indigent clinics in the county. These discussions have all been very informative and have been well attended.

All meetings and presentations of the HCCC are free and open to the public.

Bill

Full disclosure: I am a member of the Leadership Team of the HCCC.

Sheriff Terry Box has asked the commissioners court to ratify a grant application for Bureau of Justice Assistance grant valued at up to $50,000.

The grant funds would be used by the Sheriff's Department, in collaboration with LifePath Systems, to design a "strategic collaberative plan to initiate systemic change for the identification and treatment of system-involved individuals with mental illness or co-occurring mental health or substance abuse problems."

According to Box, the end result of the planning process would be a "comprehensive jail diversion program that would include all facets of the criminal justice system and local mental healthcare providers".

The county would be expected to contribute $12,500 in matching funds.

The planning process is scheduled to be complete in September of 2011, and will allow the county to apply for and participate in another $450,000 of grant funds for implementation of a diversion system.

The costs of incarceration for mentally ill individuals is enormous. At any given time, a large percentage of the inmates in the county jail are receiving mental health medication or need to be. In fact, the Collin County jail is the largest provider of mental health service in the county.

LifePath Systems, the co-collaborator in the grant is a community-based, non-profit organization created specifically to help individuals and their families dealing with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities and developmental delays. LifePath with funding from the NorthStar program provides much of the mental illness services to the county jail.

The Dallas Morning News published a story this weekend on Dallas' mental health diversion program. It's an interesting read.

The county is already funding a seperate study by the University of North Texas on the delivery of indigent mental healthcare services in Collin County.

Bill

In the latest development over the equipping of District Attorney investigators as a "Rapid Response Team" complete with automatic weapons, the DA has notified the courts that until they "revise" their Mission, these "courthouse commandos" will not deploy.

In her memo addressed to the Courthouse Security Committee, DA Chief Investigator Novaline Varner wrote:

"The Collin County District Attorney's Office is in the process of revising our Mission concerning First Responders. Effective immediately the Collin County District Attorney's Office will not deploy a First Responders Team from our Office for any courthouse emergency or security matter. We will advise you when our mission study and any revisions have been completed.

"We will continue to support the Collin County Courthouse Security Committee and of course abide by Art. 2.13 Code of Criminal Procedure, Duties and Powers of a Peace Officer."

The lack of a clearly defined mission and agreements between the DA Team and Bailiffs and other Law enforcement agencies was highlighted by the Commissioners Court in their discussion of the purchase of SWAT Team equipment last month. When asked by commissioners about the apparent lack of procedures, Varner responded ",We are working on an SOP, so everybody will know what they're doing. but all of that takes time. While we're wasting time getting through the red tape, we're still training. I don't want us to come across that we're some kind of "Three Stooges" type [operation]."

It is not known if the District Attorney will proceed with the purchase of $25,306.46 in SWAT Team guns and equipment utilizing his Drug Forfeiture Fund.

Bill

Free H1N1 shots are being offered at Plano clinic

The Collin County Adult Clinic in Plano is offering free H1N1 shots to anyone 6 months or older. There are no residency or income restrictions.

The vaccinations are being offered in cooperation with the Collin County Health Department through at least the end of February.

Collin County Adult Clinic is at 2520 Ave. K, at the northeast corner of Avenue K and Park Boulevard.

Vaccination times are:
• Monday and Wednesday, 4 to 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Feb. 1, 3, 8, 10, 15 and 17, 4 to 7:30 p.m.
• Feb. 6, 13 and 20, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

From a Collin County Press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 13, 2010

Contact: Pamela Nishimoto, PHER Public Outreach Educator, (214)491-6855

HEALTH ADVISORY: Collin County’s First H1N1 Mass Vaccination Clinic Planned for National Influenza Vaccination Week

(McKINNEY, Texas) – Collin County’s first H1N1 mass vaccination clinic will be held Saturday, January 16 in conjunction with National Influenza Vaccination Week (Jan. 10-16, 2010). Collin County Health Care Services and Collin County Homeland Security will offer free H1N1 vaccine at the clinic being held at Anna High School, 1201 North Powell Parkway, TX, 75409. Walk-ins will be welcome from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The H1N1 clinic is open to everyone.

Staffed primarily by volunteer members of Collin County’s Medical Reserve Corps, the clinic will provide H1N1 vaccine free of charge to the general public. No appointments are necessary.

National Influenza Vaccination Week is a nationwide observance urging everyone to get vaccinated against H1N1 and seasonal flu. Between April and mid-November 2009, there were approximately 47 million cases of 2009 H1N1 flu, more than 200,000 hospitalizations, and nearly 10,000 deaths, with the vast majority of deaths occurring in children and non-elderly adults. Flu experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warn to prepare for another wave of H1N1 flu during coming months.

The threat of H1N1 influenza remains as we continue through the flu season. The public is urged to get vaccinated, either by their primary physician, at the free H1N1 clinic being held Saturday, Jan. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or at one of 68 locations partnering with Collin County Health Care Services to provide H1N1 vaccine.

For further information regarding local H1N1 vaccine availability, the public may utilize the following resources: Collin County website at www.co.collin.tx.us/ and Collin County Facebook and Twitter sites; Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Texas Flu Vaccine Locator at www.Texasflu.org; DSHS H1N1 information lines available by calling “2-1-1”; or, calling Collin County Health Care Services at (972) 548-5500.

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From a press release by Collin County Homeland Security:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2010

Contact: Pamela Nishimoto, PHER Public Outreach Educator, (214)491-6855

HEALTH ADVISORY: Collin County Health Care Services Reports 1st H1N1 Flu-Related Death

(McKINNEY, Texas) – Collin County Health Care Services reports that a 28-year-old Collin County resident who died recently was infected with H1N1 flu. The male had underlying medical conditions. In order to comply with federal privacy laws, Collin County Health Care Services cannot provide additional identifying information.

The threat of H1N1 influenza remains as we continue through the flu season. The public is urged to get vaccinated, either by their primary physician, at a free H1N1? clinic Collin County is offering Saturday, January 16th from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Anna High School - 1201 North Powell Parkway, or at one of 68 locations partnering with Collin County Health Care Services to provide H1N1? vaccine.

For further information regarding local H1N1 vaccine availability, the public may utilize the following resources: Collin County website at http://www.co.collin.tx.us/ and Collin County Facebook and Twitter sites; Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Texas Flu Vaccine Locator at http://www.Texasflu.org; DSHS H1N1 information lines available by calling “2-1-1”; or, calling Collin County Health Care Services at (972) 548-5500.

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+++++++

Pamela Nishimoto

PHER Public Outreach Educator

Collin County Homeland Security

You might be surprised to learn that the Collin County Jail is the largest provider of mental health services in Collin County.

The cost to our taxpayers and our society is enormous - and growing. What is the cost to our communities? What can be done to reduce recidivism, prevent offenses and keep our neighborhoods safe? What resources are available to see that treatment is available when appropriate?

The HealthCare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) is sponsoring a panel discussion on issues of mental illness in Collin County Jails.

Panelists for the discussion will be:

• Hon. Jerry Madden – District 67 TX House of Representatives; Vice Chair, House Committee on Corrections
• Hon. Chris Oldner – Judge, 416th District Court; Administrative Judge, Collin County District Courts
• Assistant Chief Deputy Randy Clark – Collin County Sheriff’s Office
• Dr. Xiaoyan Wu – Contracted Psychiatrist, Collin County Jail
• Janie Metzinger – Mental Health America (serving an 11 county area including Collin County)
• Jane O'Brian – Collin County Adult Probation
• Lynda Wynn Drain - local defense attorney, Master-Substitute Judge for Mental Commitment Hearings since 2008

The meeting will be held Tuesday, January 5, 2010 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Spring Creek Campus of Collin College, 2800 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano, TX 75074 in Room C103. There is no cost, and the public is invited to attend and ask questions.

This will be the fourth major panel discussion hosted by the HCCC. Previous expert panels discussed the role and financing of non-profit clinics, the need and government resources for mental health care, and the county indigent health care program. These well attended panel discussions have featured expert panelists from state and local government, elected officials and private and non-profit care givers.

The Healthcare Committee of Collin County is a nonpartisan grassroots organization focused on ensuring adequate healthcare for all residents of Collin County. The purpose of the Committee is to encourage members and others to be educated on all aspects of healthcare as it pertains to Collin County residents. All are welcome.

More information can be found on their web site, www.collinhealthcare.org

Bill

In the interest of full disclosure: I serve on the Leadership Team of the HCCC.

Frisco city officials fear battery recycler's expansion plan would worsen lead levels

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
Staff writer Randy Lee Loftis contributed to this report.

"Frisco conducted a health risk assessment in 1994 and a follow-up in 1995 that focused on three families who lived a few blocks north of the lead smelter and east of the new City Hall. The studies found elevated levels of lead in three children but couldn't conclusively connect them to the plant's emissions."

"'I believe we may have the distinction of having the only wastewater treatment plant in the country that ever produced hazardous waste,' Purefoy said."

Thousands of people in the heart of Frisco are exposed to toxic lead pollution from a battery recycling plant that wants to expand production.

Exide Technologies Inc. operates the decades-old lead smelter that's flanked by Frisco's downtown, a high school and several neighborhoods and businesses. Its lead emissions make Collin County one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air-quality standards. It is expected to be the only such designation in the south-central United States.

Recent research shows that lead poses a greater risk to people than scientists once thought. And it's especially detrimental to children, who can suffer from learning problems, diminished IQs and brain damage.

Exide, whose plant is not in violation of current air-quality standards, responded to only a few specific questions. Exide also declined a request to make available Don Barar, its plant manager in Frisco.

The company issued a brief statement that said in part: "The desire and intent of Exide Technologies is to operate responsibly and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements."

Frisco officials object to the production increase and are challenging Exide's plans through a trial-like contested case hearing with state regulators. Their letter to state officials says the expansion "will have a negative impact on the City and its residents."

Late this summer, Exide officials proposed spending more than $1.3 million to reduce the plant's lead air emissions in hopes of moving its application forward. The projects outlined in documents sent to the state would capture so-called fugitive emissions – the lead released through cracks in a building or by vehicle traffic leaving the plant.

But City Manager George Purefoy said, "I don't understand logically how they can increase production and not increase the amount of emissions going out of the stacks."

City grew up with plant

Frisco is in a unique position: Few, if any, burgeoning suburban cities nationwide have a lead smelter in the middle of town.

Gould-National Battery Inc. originally built the plant in 1964 on 55 acres along South Fifth Street with views of rolling prairies. At the time, the city's population was less than 1,900.

But Frisco grew up. Farmland has been eaten up by subdivisions. And the city's population has exploded to more than 106,000.

Exide Technologies acquired the plant in 2000. It's one of nine battery recycling plants worldwide operated by the company based in Milton, Ga. It employs 130 people.

The Frisco plant crushes used automotive and industrial batteries, uses heat to extract the lead and converts it into lead oxide to make recycled batteries. The process releases some of the lead into the environment.

A year ago, Exide submitted a request to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow the Frisco plant to break down more batteries. Finished lead production limits would increase to 500 tons a day, up from the current limit of 400 tons a day.

The commission is still reviewing the request. Officials there said they cannot comment on pending permits.

A key question remains unanswered: What impact would a production increase at Exide's plant have on already elevated lead-pollution levels?

In its application to the state, Exide said its production change wouldn't increase the plant's lead emissions, but it didn't offer any evidence.

Exide's 100-page application to Texas regulators didn't include an air modeling study – common in such applications – that estimates lead levels in the air around the smelter.

In addition, the map Exide sent to state regulators to show what's near the plant is so outdated that the Dallas North Tollway isn't listed. Neither are Pizza Hut Park, Frisco Square, Frisco High School and several newer neighborhoods.

Purefoy said the city didn't know about the expansion proposal until after Exide submitted it in October 2008. Later that month, Purefoy fired off an e-mail to Mayor Maher Maso after a meeting with Barar, the plant manager.

"I told him that the city was committed to reducing the emissions falling on our citizens every minute from the plant," Purefoy wrote. "And if Exide wasn't committed to the same goal, then the relationship between the city and Exide was taking a dramatic change of course."

Stricter standards

In November 2008, the EPA gave notice that the federal air-quality standard for lead emissions would become 10 times more stringent – from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter.

"After being quiet for 15 years on the lead front, it's now a priority for the EPA," said Guy Donaldson, chief of the planning section for the agency's Region 6, which covers a five-state area that includes Texas. "It's happening now because the scientific evidence says you have health effects at these levels."

The new standard for lead, which wouldn't be enforced in Collin County until 2012, is the level expected to protect public health.

A monitoring station on Exide's property recorded violations of the 1.5 standard in 1985, 1989 and 1990. The plant, then operated by another company, received violation notices in 1989 and 1990. A year later, the EPA designated the facility a nonattainment area, meaning it violated air-quality standards. The area was declared back in compliance in 1999.

The new proposed nonattainment area is at least twice as big as the one designated in 1991.

'Any exposure is bad'

In recent years, the tools for measuring the effects of lead exposure in people have become more precise, allowing scientists to detect lower levels in blood and measure damage in greater detail.

"Lead is toxic even at the lowest levels we can measure," said Philip Landrigan, an international leader in public health and a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. "Any exposure is bad, but more exposure is worse."

Health effects are particularly acute in children, who breathe in more air than adults relative to their size. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity and brain damage.

In adults, high lead levels can contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. Pregnant women exposed to lead also put their unborn babies at risk.

While lead-poisoning symptoms aren't always apparent, Landrigan said, there could be some underlying health effects. The only way to know for sure is to test the amount of lead in a person's blood, he said.

Frisco conducted a health risk assessment in 1994 and a follow-up in 1995 that focused on three families who lived a few blocks north of the lead smelter and east of the new City Hall. The studies found elevated levels of lead in three children but couldn't conclusively connect them to the plant's emissions.

Purefoy, Frisco's city manager, said last month that he hopes to conduct a larger health study to determine any effects from lead.

read the rest of this informative article on The Dallas Morning News' website....

From a Collin County Department of Homeland Security press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 3, 2009
Contact: Pamela Nishimoto, Public Outreach Educator, (214)491-6855
HEALTH ADVISORY: H1N1 Influenza Vaccine



(McKINNEY, Texas) – Collin County Health Care Services is providing H1N1 vaccine for no charge at seven locations to individuals in the Texas Department of State Health Services’ (DSHS) high-risk priority vaccination groups, and for an administration fee at an additional 59 locations. There are currently 66 provider locations who have partnered with Collin County in order to facilitate ease of access to the vaccine for residents in the high-risk priority vaccination groups. This includes the addition this week of Celina Drug, two additional PrimaCare locations, seven Albertsons Pharmacies, and 13 Kroger Pharmacies.

To date Collin County Health Care Services has received a total of 20,953 doses of H1N1 influenza vaccine. Doses have been, and are being, distributed to: area hospitals, emergency medical workers, first responders, shelter populations, community clinics, and local area pharmacies. Each location is providing vaccine to individuals in the high-risk priority vaccination groups identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and DSHS as initial recipients for the H1N1 vaccine. All individuals in these high-risk priority vaccination groups, listed in no particular order, are encouraged to get the H1N1 vaccine:

• Pregnant women;
• Household contacts and caregivers for infants younger than 6 months of age;
• All persons from 6 months through 24 years of age;
• Health care and emergency medical services personnel; and,
• Persons aged 25 years through 64 years of age with health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza.

Collin County individuals in the above listed CDC and DSHS high-risk priority vaccination groups are encouraged to check with their local medical provider to see if they have H1N1 vaccine available.

UPDATE: December 4, 2009
From Collin County Homeland Security -

Beginning Monday, December 7th, Collin County will be offering H1N1 vaccine to all Collin County residents.

Since receiving vaccine, Collin County has followed the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), offering the vaccine only to specific target groups while vaccine was in limited availability. However, vaccine is now widely available in both public and private sectors throughout Collin County and will be made accessible to all residents who desire to be vaccinated.

"Collin County individuals are encouraged to get vaccinated prior to holiday travel, as some areas are more severely affected by the H1N1 virus than Collin County."

Additionally, they may receive the H1N1 vaccine for no charge, while supplies last at:

• Children & Community Health Center of McKinney,
• Collin County Adult Clinic in Plano;
• Express Health in McKinney;
• PrimaCare locations in Frisco, McKinney, Plano and west Plano.

The 59 additional locations throughout Collin County currently providing H1N1 vaccinations to the CDC and DSHS high-risk priority vaccination groups for an administration fee include:

• Celina Drug;
• Texas Star Pharmacy;
• four Care Now locations;
• seven Albertsons Pharmacies;
• 11 Tom Thumb Pharmacies;
• 13 Kroger Pharmacies; and,
• 22 Walgreens Pharmacies.

The 66 Collin County locations include:

• Albertsons Pharmacies - All Collin County locations
  Hours of Operation: Varies by location
  Serving: Ages 18 to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: $20
  Website: www.albertsons.com

• CareNow - Allen
  1218 W. McDermott, Allen, Texas 75013
  (972)390-9000
  Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable
  Fee: $20
  Website: www.carenow.com

• CareNow – Frisco Preston
  5644 Preston Road, Frisco, Texas 75035
  (972)529-4545
  Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable
  Fee: $20
  Website: www.carenow.com

• CareNow - McKinney
  809 N. Central Expressway, McKinney, Texas 75070
  (972)529-4500
  Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable
  Fee: $20
  Website: www.carenow.com

• CareNow - Plano
  3821 W. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano, Texas 75023
  (972)599-0077
  Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable
  Fee: $20
  Website: www.carenow.com

• Celina Drug
  701 N. Preston Road, Suite #210, Celina, Texas 75023
  (972)382-2832
  Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 8 to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: $15

• Children & Community Health Center of McKinney
  120 S. Central Expressway #106, McKinney, Texas 75070
  (972)547-0606
  Hours of Operation: By Appointment
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.cchc-vim.org

• Collin County Adult Clinic - Plano
  2520 K Avenue, Plano, Texas 75074
  (972)423-4941
  Hours of Operation: Saturday, December 5, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.collincountyadultclinic.org

• Express Health – McKinney
  1505 Harroun Street, Suite C, McKinney, Texas 75070
  (972)548-2722
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.expresshealthnow.com

• Kroger Pharmacies - All Collin County locations
  Hours of Operation: Varies by location
  Serving: Ages 8 to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: $10
  Website: www.kroger.com
  

• PrimaCare – Frisco
  7227 Preston Road, Frisco, Texas 75035
  (972)377-7878
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.primacare.com

• PrimaCare – McKinney
  1920 W. Eldorado Parkway, McKinney, Texas 75069
  (469)952-3737
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.primacare.com

• PrimaCare – Plano
  3304 Alma Drive, Plano, Texas 75023
  (972)424-6581
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.primacare.com

• PrimaCare – Plano West
  5076 W. Plano Parkway, Plano, Texas 75023
  (972)424-6581
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: No charge to high-risk groups
  Website: www.primacare.com

• Texas Star Pharmacy
  3033 W. Parker Road, #100, Plano Texas 75023
  (972)665-3129
  Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 9:00 AM - 6:30 PM; Saturday 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  Serving: Ages 6 months to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Intranasal Mist, Injectable, Preservative Free
  Fee: $19
  Website: www.pharmaciesplano.com

• Tom Thumb Pharmacies - All Collin County locations
  Hours of Operation: Varies by location
  Serving: Ages 8 to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: $15
  Website: www.tomthumb.com

• Walgreens Pharmacies - All Collin County locations
  Hours of Operation: Varies by location
  Serving: Ages 8 to 64 years
  Vaccine Available: Injectable
  Fee: $18
  Website: www.walgreens.com/marketing/storelocator/find.jsp

Due to the limited vaccine supply nationally, the CDC and DSHS have recommended that specific high-risk priority vaccination groups receive the 2009 H1N1 vaccine first. Once the demand for vaccine for these groups has been met, the CDC and DSHS will target additional high-risk groups and later the general population. Collin County is currently developing strategic plans to best serve the public’s health needs as future doses of H1N1 vaccine become available. Once additional vaccine is received, these plans will be implemented with H1N1 vaccine distributed countywide to serve high-risk groups identified by the CDC and DSHS.

Private providers in Collin County have received 96,135 doses of H1N1 vaccine as of the DSHS's November 19 weekly report. Individuals in CDC and DSHS high-risk priority vaccination groups are encouraged to contact their local health care provider to arrange for H1N1 vaccination appointments or seek services from one of the locations listed above.

For further information regarding H1N1 vaccine availability, the public is encouraged to utilize the following resources: Collin County website at http://www.co.collin.tx.us/ and the Collin County Facebook and Twitter sites; the DSHS Texas Flu Vaccine Locator at http://www.Texasflu.org; call the DSHS H1N1 information lines available by calling “2-1-1”; or, call the Collin County Health Care Services at (972) 548-5500.

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Fox4 TV aired a short piece tonight about the sad case of Matthew Cantrell, the young boy from Murphy who was strangled in a back yard soccer net. Matthew's Parents filed suit in a federal court earlier this year charging that Matthew's death could have been avoided, but that the city's 911 response and police failed to help.

The Dallas Morning News followed up with the article below mostly airing the City of Murphy's position.

Last May, The Collin County Observer posted a copy of the law suit (it is very disturbing reading) and a press release by the parents. We also published the City Manager's report on the incident.

In their latest filing with the District Court, the City of Murphy has asked the court to dismiss the suit.

Bill

====================================================================================

Murphy city officials defend officers' response in boy's death

Thursday, December 3, 2009
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News

Officials with the city of Murphy on Thursday defended the handling of a situation two years ago in which a toddler died after becoming ensnared in a backyard soccer net.

The city released testimony and a 911 recording from the October 2007 incident. The boy died in a hospital three days later, and his parents subsequently sued the city.

"This is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to them," City Manager James Fisher said. "But our employees did the job they were trained to do. They went out of their way to help as best they could."

The city said it filed a motion last week in a federal district court in Tyler to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs, Michael and Ave Cantrell, contend that police officers and paramedics reacted too slowly to save their son Matthew. The lawsuit names specific officers and East Texas Medical Center, which provided additional assistance.

On Thursday, Fisher said Murphy is free of blame. Its motion states that Ave Cantrell's hysterical 911 call made it difficult for the dispatcher to respond to her cries for assistance. Records show police still arrived at the Cantrell home about three minutes after the call.

"It's wrong in the assertion that officers didn't do anything to help them," Fisher said. "In a very emotional call, the dispatcher moved as fast as possible."

Cantrell defended his wife.

"That they are coming out with this press release attacking the mother is disturbing considering she did everything possible to try and save Matthew," he said. "She received zero medical help from [the dispatcher] or the police who had her imprisoned" in the bedroom as they evaluated the boy, he said. Ave Cantrell cut her son from the net and placed him on a couch at least 10 minutes before officers arrived.

The federal lawsuit argues that police officers prevented paramedics and the boy's mother from helping him. The motion to dismiss counters that both officers checked for a pulse and breathing and one set of paramedics moved into the house immediately upon arrival.

read the rest of the article in the Dallas Morning News....

The county has distributed about 15,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine to several area clinics and pharmacies. According to their press release, the county said that the vaccine would be available to "high risk" citizens on Saturday, November 21. Since both my wife and I fall into the "high risk" category, we decided that we would go and get our shots.

First we tried the Walgreen's in Wylie. No luck there. We were told that no vaccine would be available until Monday -- at the earliest.

Then we tried the Prima Care in Plano. They had the vaccine, and they also had a huge crowd and a harried receptionist who informed us that we would be waiting "a long time" to get served.

I then figured we'd do better to try to use the telephone to see what would work best. First we tried the "211" number the county suggested we call. After answering a lot of geographic questions, like "Is Wylie in Collin County?", we were told that there was no Swine Flu vaccine available nearby.

I then called the Texas Star Pharmacy in Plano. They had the shots, but we were too late as they closed at noon. When I asked them what we'd need to bring to document that "high risk", they told me that they were offering the vaccine to everyone, without restriction.

We then called the Tom Thumb pharmacy, they had the shots, explained what forms we needed to fill out and 20 minutes later, we were both vaccinated. The cost to us was $15 each. (The county also pays the providers an additional $21 per shot.)

Out of curiosity, I called a few more designated providers. None reported the kind of long lines seen in Dallas County. There was some real confusion over eligibility, and not all locations had the vaccine available as promised.

It took us about 2 hours to find and get the shots. From what I've been reading of long waits and confusion in other counties, the distribution system the Collin County's Health and Homeland Security Departments set up worked better than many.

It was the first day for widespread distribution, and some confusion is to be expected. Hopefully, the glitches will be worked out quickly, and additional supplies of the vaccine will be made available on a continuing basis.

Bill

Want know where to find the vaccine in Collin County? Here is information from the county.

Correction:

December 1

I received this explanation on payments to providors from a spokesperson at the county:

"One clarification regarding your “Getting vaccinated in Collin County” post. Contracted providers in Collin County are only reimbursed for those vaccine doses they’ve received from the County, and are administering as part of the county’s medical services “safety net.” The reimbursable rate is $19.20 per dose (the regional Medicare dose rate). Providers who charge for their vaccination services do not receive any reimbursement from the County."

From a Collin County press release issued Friday:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Health Care Services
825 N. McDonald St. Suite 120
McKinney, Texas 75069
www.collincountytx.gov

November 20, 2009

(McKINNEY, Texas) -- Collin County Health Care Services received an additional 8,600 doses of H1N1 vaccine today from state health authorities, making more than 15,000 doses available this week to individuals who are in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control priority vaccination groups as listed below:

• Pregnant women
• People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age
• Health Care and Emergency Medical Services Personnel
• Persons between the ages of 6 months and 24 years
• People ages 25 through 64 years who are at higher risk for novel H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems

Those who fall into the above priority groups and are interested in receiving the H1N1 vaccination can call one of the following locations beginning Saturday, Nov. 21:

• PRIMACARE-MCKINNEY
  1920 W. Eldorado Pkwy
  McKinney, TX 75069
  Mon-Fri (8am-9pm)
  Sat & Sun (8am-5pm)
  469-952-3737
  *Preservative-free available
• PRIMACARE-PLANO
  3304 Alma Dr
  Plano, TX 75023
  Mon-Fri (8am-9pm)
  Sat & Sun (8am-5pm)
  972-424-6581
  *Preservative-free available
• EXPRESS HEALTH-MCKINNEY
  1505 Harroun Street, Suite C
  McKinney, TX 75070
  Mon-Fri (8am-5pm)
  972-548-2722
• TEXAS STAR PHARMACY-PLANO
  3033 West Parker Rd.
  Plano, TX 75023
  972-519-8475
• Walgreen Pharmacies in Collin County
• Tom Thumb Pharmacies in Collin County

For future updates of H1N1 vaccine availability and locations, the public may call ‘211’ or 972-548-5500 (CCHCS main line). Also, the Texasflu.org website has posted a Flu Vaccine Locator, or residents can check the Collin County Facebook and Twitter sites through the Collin County website, www.colllincountytx.gov.

Collin County's Department of Homeland Security is responsible for running court house security, The Fire Marshall's office, the North Central Texas Fusion Center, and terrorism and disaster response.

On its web page, the Homeland Security Department lists another core function, "Developing and managing state and federal grant funding for emergency management, homeland security and bioterrorism programs."

It is in gaining and spending grant money, or as I'll call it OPM (Other People's Money) that the Homeland Security folks are masters.

According to a presentation given to the commissioners court earlier this year the DHS has managed to garner over $13 million in grant funds (OPM) since 2003.

UASI (Urban Area Security Initiative), SHSG (State Homeland Security Grant), and LETPP (Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention) grants were used for construction of the Fusion Center, law enforcement radios, phones and communication systems, and disaster preparedness programs.

The PHEP (Public Health Emergency Preparedness)is a grant from the Centers for Disease Control for Bio Terrorism and epidemiology. In 2006,2007 and 2008, the PHEP grant included a total of about $1 million for pandemic flu planning.

The PHER (Public Health Emergency Response) grant is a state grant for pandemic H1N1 flu response. This year, Collin County has already received a PHER grant of $707,309 to be used to plan for mass H1N1 immunizations. The commissioners court is expected to approve another PHER grant request for an additional $1,166,545 to be used to distribute the flu vaccine to targeted populations.

Collin County has applied for 15,500 H1N1 flu vaccine doses, 2,500 will be for critical response and infrastructure such as police and emergency workers. The balance is planned for distribution to uninsured, high risk citizens. To date, the county has only recieved 500 doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine. It is likely that the county will only receive about 6,000 doses before the end of the flu season.

Homeland Security had already been awarded over $1 million from 2006-2008 to plan for a flu pandemic. In addition, it received another $700 thousand dollars this year, and it says it need yet another $1.16 million in order to distribute the vaccine.

Since the federal and state government bear the cost of the vaccine itself, the county will spend no money to actually acquire the H1N1 flu vaccine. It will however spend almost $3 million in overhead costs to plan and execute the distribution of the flu shots.

That $3 million is all grant money or OPM.

If the county were to receive ALL the doses it has asked for, the OPM overhead cost of planning is over $190 per dose for distribution. If, as is the more likely scenario, it only gets 6,000 doses, the cost in OPM per dose will be $500.

So how complicated is the distribution?

Well, so far the county plans to send some doses to area hospitals for their staff, but most of the available vaccine would be allocated to the county's own health clinic and to other area clinics. The county has already made an agreement with the Collin County Adult Clinic to distribute up to 2,600 doses at a cost of $19.20 each. The county plans similar agreements with other local clinics.

Most of us in Collin county will get the vaccination from our personal physician. Your doctor will also get the dose for free from the federal government, and he will only be able to charge the insurance company somewhat less than $50. My doctor will offer the shot for a flat $20 fee. Collin County will be responsible for vaccinating critical staff as well as the indigent and uninsured.

Its only the flagrant use of OPM that permits this normally frugal county government to spend $500 on something that will cost it less than $20.

Collin County prides itself on its efficient use of taxpayers dollars. It has no similar attitude when it comes to spending OPM... even if that OPM is taxpayer's dollars.

The county's Homeland Security Department is expert at finding and spending huge sums of OPM grant funds, often with little result.

Bill

Frisco to consider health risk study of battery plant

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News

Frisco's city officials and state regulators agreed Monday to look into doing a health risk study related to lead emissions from a battery-recycling plant in the city's center.

The commitment comes as concerns grow about health effects from lead pollution from the Exide Technologies plant, just south of downtown.

A year ago, Exide submitted an application to state regulators to increase production at the plant, which is on Fifth Street and near several neighborhoods. The city is protesting the permit and has filed a request for a contested-case hearing, which is a legal proceeding similar to a civil trial.

Recently, state regulators gave notice that an area around the plant is not expected to meet the new, more stringent federal air quality standards for lead that go into effect in Collin County in 2012. The non-attainment area is expected to be the only one in the south-central U.S.

On Monday, Frisco Mayor Maher Maso and City Manager George Purefoy drove to Austin to discuss the smelter with Mark Vickery, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The agency oversees the company's operations and is reviewing its application to expand.

Article highlighting application

The meeting, which had been planned for some time, came a day after a Dallas Morning News article highlighting Exide's application and the proposal for non-attainment.

Exide officials declined to comment for the article, saying they couldn't discuss pending applications.

The company has said in documents that a production expansion won't increase lead emissions.

The plant's lead emissions comply with current federal air quality standards, but its emissions make Collin County one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air quality standards.

No amount of lead exposure is safe, but it's especially detrimental to children, who can suffer from learning problems and brain damage.

Maso said at the start of a town hall meeting Monday night that the discussion with Vickery went well, but he didn't elaborate. Exide was not listed on the agenda, which limited what city officials could say.

Maso said future meetings will be planned to discuss the plant.

"Rest assured we are monitoring it and are on top of it," Maso said.

He noted that the city has been working on the issue for a while.

"I personally don't feel Exide has been responsive to our city," Maso said. "This isn't just a Frisco issue."

He said after that meeting that some residents have demanded that the plant be closed.

"I'm not sure I disagree with that," he said. "If they won't be open and transparent, they have no place in Frisco."

The health risk study, if approved, would be the first in the city since 1995, when a study identified three children living north of the plant with elevated lead levels in their blood. The study could not conclusively connect those levels with the plant's emissions.

The city had handouts available at the town hall meeting that included copies of the city's protest letter and a map with a one-mile and two-mile radius around the plant. The packet also included a format for residents interested in filing their own protest with state regulators.

Maso said people living within a mile of the plant have standing to protest, but he also urged others outside that area with concerns to send one in.

Protest letter

The city's sample protest letter included the following statements:

•"I am adversely affected because the documented degradation of air quality in the vicinity of the Applicant's facility has had a negative impact on me and my family."

•"An increase in the amount of allowable emissions will significantly impact me and my family."

•"My family has been adversely impacted by harmful particulates and odors from the Applicant's facility."

•"Withdrawal of the application will resolve my immediate concerns although I believe Exide's lead emissions are having a negative long term health effect on me and my family."

A summary of the city's meeting with TCEQ also stated that Vickery "agreed to further research the methodology used to determine the designated non-attainment area for the new EPA lead standards and Exide's specific permit amendment."

Exide seeks to boost finished lead production limits to 500 tons a day, up from the current limit of 400 tons a day. TCEQ is reviewing the request.

Built in 1964, the plant crushes old automotive and industrial batteries, uses heat to extract the lead and converts it into lead oxide to make recycled batteries. In the process, some lead is released into the environment.

A few months ago, Exigent proposed spending more than $1.3 million to upgrade the plant's pollution control in hopes of moving its application forward. The upgrades would help trap so-called fugitive emissions – the lead released through a crack in a building or by a truck leaving the plant.

In November 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency gave notice that the federal air quality standard for lead emissions would become 10 times more stringent – from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter.

The plant's current lead emissions are projected to exceed the 0.15 lead standard, according to state data.

read more at the Dallas Morning News.....

==============
Also see: DMN - Frisco officials fight plans to expand lead smelter

Yesterday, the Collin County Observer wrote of the issues with ADB and the North Central Texas Fusion Center.

Today, without any discussion, the Commissioners Court awarded a $240,000 contract for maintenance and operation of the Fusion Center to Dr. Bob Johnson, his wife, and presumably his brother-in-law. Bob Johnson is the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson.

Johnson's company, ADB Consulting, LLC was the lowest bidder in a contest that saw an extreme range of quotes - from ADB's low $240,000 to a high bid of over $3 million. It was a contest where Dr. Bob played a significant role in writing the bid specifications.

In response to an Open Records Request by the Observer, the county sent the bid tabulation data, a summary of which is presented below.

Before price was considered, ADB was rated 3rd of the 5 bidders. County staff rated it lowest among the bidders in qualifications, 4th in successful track record with fusion centers and third in having relevant experience.

But it was total price which carried the most weight. ADB's proposal was almost 50% lower than the next lowest bid and less than one tenth of the highest.

Sources in the county told me that because of the wide variance in quotes, all the bidders were given an opportunity to review and resubmit their pricing.

The North Texas fusion Center will continue to rock along as it has with Anita and Dr. Bob at the helm.

With the lowest priced product, and the least qualified support, ADB will be able to offer the Fusion Center the Wal-mart plan for Homeland Security.

Bill

On the Collin County Commissioners Court consent agenda for Monday, September 28 is item, #4c2: Award, Services: Fusion System Data and Analysis (RFP No. 02362-09), Homeland Security.

Both the agenda item and the published court packet seem intentionally vague as to the winner of the award. Typically, the agenda item states to whom the contract is to be awarded, and the packet contains the proposed contract as well as the bid tabulation, showing all bids received. In this case, there is no information published other than the basic agenda item quoted above. (The Observer has submitted an Open Records request for the missing documents, and they will be posted here as soon as they are received.)

Despite the lack of published documentation, the Collin County Observer has learned that the purchasing department will recommend the contract be awarded to ADB Consulting.

According to sources at the county, ADB was far and away the lowest bidder.

The whole process of getting to the Fusion Center contract award has been as Alice said in Wonderland, "curiouser and curiouser".

ADB Consulting is a partnership between Dr. Robert Johnson (Dr. Bob) and his wife Anita Miller that operates out of their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Dr. Johnson is the son of Plano's US Congressman, Sam Johnson.

For over a year now, the Observer has documented over $1.3 million in "no bid" county contracts to ADB Consulting for Fusion Center operations. After a series of articles hit the national press, the commissioners court decided to put the Fusion Center operations contract out for competitive bid.

In a story broadcast last May on Channel 8, WFAA's Brett Shipp revealed that Dr. Bob, "played a major role in writing the bid specifications".

It was back in February when the bid specifications were distributed, the 'closing date' for receiving proposals was March 19. It has taken the county over 6 months to come to a decision to award the contract to ADB - despite the performance of ADB in writing a much publicized Fusion Center Bulletin, and despite charges that ADB was subcontracting in violation of federal nepotism prohibitions.

Collin County owns and operates the Fusion Center, more properly called the North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS), to collect and disseminate intelligence data for action and planning relating to homeland security, bio-terrorism, police actions, and natural disaster. The Fusion center collects and stores vast amounts of data on citizens and attempts to use the data to predict and plan for terrorist acts. It also shares much of its data with other regional law enforcement agencies for use in more traditional police work. The Fusion Center is primarily funded through federal grants. It collects no funds from cooperating agencies - all its services are free of charge.

The county has yet to face the real dilemma on the Fusion Center - what to do with it. It is becoming an albatross around the neck of the elected commissioners court, which is totally unqualified by training or temperament to manage an intelligence operation.

And there has been mismanagement:

- several years of no-bid contracts to a politically well-connected insider.

- Publication of the "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" (PAB) that quoted from inflammatory internet rumors to call for law enforcement to report on legal lobbying and protest activities by Muslin and anti-war groups. That goofy PAB received national attention, caused federal and state homeland security trainers to rush to Texas to "train and counsel" local personnel, became the subject of a US House of Representatives subcommittee hearing, was used as a "how not to do it" example at a national homeland security conference, and is still cited by the press as an example of what can go wrong whenever a new fusion center is proposed. The PAB was written by Dr. Bob Johnson.

- revelations that ADB awarded Fusion Center contracts to the brother of one of its partners, and was accused of violations of federal ethics rules relating to nepotism.

- Running a "Code Red" early warning system that was so ineffective that local cities believed they got better information from the TV weatherman.

There are other concerns.

Several commissioners have also expressed concern of "unfunded programs" - if the federal funds dry up, the county would find itself with an expensive operation that would have to be paid for by local tax funds.

That will happen eventually and could happen soon. Federal Homeland Security grants filter down to the local level through a web of operational committees and organizations. Several of these are under the effective control of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The new DPS director previously was directly involved with the DPS fusion system. Reports form Austin lend credence to the rumors that he will keep most of the federal funding in Austin to complete the construction of the State's own fusion center.

The NCTFS is not the only Fusion Center operating in the region. The North Central Texas Council of Governments has built and is operating LEAP (Law Enforcement Analysis Portal). The City of Dallas has a fusion center called MOSAIC (Metro Operations Support and Analytical Intelligence Center), and the Texas Department of Public Safety is building a statewide fusion center, The Texas Intelligence Center.

Operating an intelligence center is not one of the core or even traditional functions of a county government. To date, the NCTFS has provided little or no value to the citizens of Collin County and its continued viability is doubtful.

The commissioners court would do well to consider alternatives to owning a Fusion Center. There are other possibilities. One would be to merge the NCTFS with the other large regional system, LEAP, run by the NCTCOG. COG has a long history of operating regional, multi-jurisdictional programs. They already have contracts with many of the local police agencies for data sharing.

Another alternative might be to turn over the technology and data to the DPS. This past year, it has become apparent that DPS is in need of a core intelligence technology that works.

The commissioners court needs to take a hard look at its fusion center. It need to order an independent investigation of past financial and contract practices, and it needs to decide if operating the Fusion Center is in the long-term interests of the county's taxpayers.

Bill

============================

Collin County Observer coverage of the NCTFS:

What is going on with the Fusion Center contract?, CCO, July 12, 2009

What's wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center?, CCO April 8, 2009

Fusion Center kills controversial newsletter, CCO April 6, 2009

Commissioners refuse Fusion Center grant that would benefit ADB, CCO March 13, 2009

Fusion Center vendor accused of nepotism and unfair competition, CCO March 8, 2009

Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Other media coverage:

Fusion Center's spending questioned in Collin County, WFAA Channel 8, May 2009

No More Lobbyist-Terrorists?, The Texas Observer, April 7, 2009

Dr. Bob's Terror Shop, The Texas Observer, April 2, 2009

Keystone Kounter-Terrorism, The Texas Observer, March 20, 2009

For Reference:

The Prevention Awareness Bulletin, NCTFS Feb. 19, 2009

Surveilling for clues of evil intent, Bruce Fein, The Washington Times, April 1, 2009

“The Future of Fusion Centers: Potential Promise and Dangers”, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, April 01, 2009

“Homeland Security Intelligence: Its Relevance and Limitations”, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, March 18, 2009

Fusion Center Guidelines, US Dept. of Justice and US Dept. of Homeland Security, 2008

Privacy Impact Assessment for the Department of Homeland Security State, Local, and Regional Fusion Center Initiative, US Dept. of Homeland Security, 2008

28 CFR Part 23 Guideline: CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS OPERATING POLICIES, Code of Federal Regulations

Fusion Center Encourages Improper Investigations Of Lobbying Groups And Anti-War Activists, ACLU April, 2009

The Dallas Morning News Plano blog reports:

Plano bat tests positive for rabies; Third recently
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009
Matthew Haag/Reporter The Dallas Morning News Plano Blog

We've gotten word from the city of Plano that another bat has tested positive for rabies. It's the third such case of rabies in the city the past month. Plano's Animal Services workers found the bat on Riverside Drive in northwest Plano and sent it to an Austin laboratory for tests.

"It is believed that no people or pets were directly exposed to the bat before Animal Services removed it," according to a city news release.

You might remember that the city reported the first case of a bat with rabies in late August, also in northwest Plano. A few weeks later, the city reported a second case, in the southeastern part of the city.

Those who receive a bat bite should wash the affected area immediately and seek medical attention, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. For further information, call Plano's Animal Services department at (972) 769-4360.

link to the Plano Blog....

From a Collin County press release:

HEALTH ADVISORY: Sept. 8, 2009
Contact:Christie Hix, R.N., 972-548-5500

Seasonal flu vaccines for adults now available; children's doses to arrive later

(McKINNEY, Texas) -- Collin County Health Care began offering seasonal flu vaccinations for adults only beginning today. These are the regular flu vaccinations offered every year at this time for people 19 and older. Vaccinations for children will be available at a later date, and vaccinations for the H1N1 virus (swine flu) will not be available until later in the year.

For seasonal flu shots for adults, vaccinations will be offered Monday through Friday from 8 to 11 a.m., and 1 to 4 p.m., at the county’s immunization clinic, 825 N. McDonald St., in McKinney.

Medicare Part B and Texas Medicaid are accepted, and health officials remind patients to bring Medicare or Medicaid cards to the clinic. For those who do not have Medicare Part B or Medicaid, the cost for the adult vaccine is $20. Cash and checks are accepted. Payment can be made with cash or check. Please wear short sleeves if possible. To be certain that supplies are on hand as flue season progresses, please call the Collin County Health Care Services office at 972-548-5500.

For more information on seasonal flu and vaccinations, please log on to www.collincountytx.gov and type “Influenza information” into the search box.

Plano, Richardson to spend $200,000 to make new police gun range safer, quieter

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Plano and Richardson are planning more than $200,000 in upgrades to a newly constructed police gun range after experts deemed it potentially unsafe and too noisy.

The cities decided to pursue the improvements in the wake of tests revealing that airborne lead levels violated federal law during the most intense shooting sessions.

The $2.7 million enclosed facility, which serves both cities as a training ground, opened last September in southeastern Plano next to a former shooting range.

But Plano closed the new facility several weeks after it opened over concerns that the lead-laden dust generated from gunfire was not dissipating.

One officer reported developing a sore throat during a shooting session, officials say.

The facility also became the source of noise complaints from neighboring residents.

Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin ordered the range closed last fall "out of an abundance of caution."

Officers have used a shooting range in McKinney? in the interim.

The departments plan to install fans to improve the facility's airflow, as well as clean the range more frequently and monitor the level of lead in the blood of its employees.

Moreover, officers will switch to ammunition that features lead-free primers – the tiny, explosive caps that allow bullets to fire.

Ventilation issues are hardly unique to Plano's range.

Police departments from Florida to New York have grappled with similar problems, especially at indoor shooting facilities.

Those departments have taken similar steps to improve air quality and protect the health of police officers.

read more....

==============
Bill comments:

Murphy residents will be anxious to see if the noise issues are truly resolved. In the short time the range was open, I heard of numerous noise complaints from residents over a mile away.

The police were shooting everything from pistols to machine guns at that range.

Bill

The Collin County Observer has learned that the county is due to receive federal stimulus grants totaling over $707,000 earmarked to coordinate planning and distribution of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine and/or anti-virals.

The grant funds will allow the county to react to any decision by the federal government to initiate a mass vaccination campaign. The county will be able to use the money for planning, recruitment of staff, contractors or volunteers that will actually do the vaccinations or dosing of anti-viral medications, and staging of supplies needed. However, while the county can plan and get a system organized, it can not implement any mass vaccinations unless and until the federal government issues a declaration of need.

The grant will cover costs for vaccinating "target population groups". The state defines the target groups as:

• pregnant women
• people living with a baby under 6 months old
• healthcare and emergency medical services personnel
• all people from 6 mos. to 24 years of age
• persons aged 25 - 64 with chronic medical conditions

The vaccine would be available in mid-October and provided at no cost to hospitals, pharmacies, medical providers and Collin County. It is unclear how many doses will be available under this program. Recent media coverage has focused on an anticipated shortage of vaccine, especially early in the flu season.

The $707,000 grant represents Collin County's portion of a $17.8 million dollar Public Health Emergency Response (PHER) program that the State of Texas is distributing to local health departments statewide.

The county is in the process of filing the needed paperwork in Austin, and final acceptance of the program by the commissioners' court is expected in mid-September.

Bill

The commissioners court, meeting as the Health Care Trustees, will consider a contract Monday with the state department of health to purchase an unspecified amount of anti-viral drugs at a below market price.

These anti-virals will be part of the county's planned response to a likely Swine Flu (H1N1) outbreak this fall. The World Health Organization reports that H1N1 flu has reached pandemic proportions and is spreading worldwide. The WHO notes the rapid spread of H1N1, along with the normal season flu in the southern hemisphere, where the winter flu season has already begun.

According to the WHO, the United States has, by far, the largest number of cases of H1N1 in the world.

As of July 6, the WHO reported over 94,000 cases of H1N1 worldwide. The US accounted for almost 34,000 of these cases amounting to over 1/3 of the infections in the world. The US is also among the leaders in mortality cased by the H1N1 virus. While the US reports it has 36% of the flu cases worldwide, it also accounts for 39% of the deaths from the flu. The world death rate from the flu is 0.45%; in the US it is 0.50%

Texas, according to CDC statistics released last week, has reported over 5,100 cases of the Swine Flu, with 27 deaths. Texas mortality rate is slightly higher than the national average at 0.52%

As of July 20, Collin County reported 76 cases and no deaths.

County health officials do plan on acquiring Swine Flu vaccines as well as the more traditional season flu vaccines when they become available - probably in September. According to Candy Blair, the county's Director of Health Care Services, the vaccines would first be made available to first responders and health care professionals, then to those citizens in high risk groups.

Bill

Update July 27:

At the Healthcare Trust Fund meeting today, Candy Blair explained that the county will only be purchasing 600 doses of the anti-viral drugs. 500 are for county 'first responders' and 'essential personnel'. 100 doses are being procured on behalf of the Collin County Community College District.

Ms. Blair told the commissioners that the State was only planning to procure 570,000 doses, and those were not for general distribution to the public - even in case of pandemic. The purpose of the state program is to ensure that in the event of a major epidemic, essential services are uninterrupted.

The commissioners asked Ms. Blair to prepare, for court approval, the list of 500 essential employees eligible to receive the anti-viral drugs.

It should be noted that this program is for drugs that are given after exposure to the Flu. They are not vaccines.

The county is planning on purchasing flu vaccines for low cost distribution to at risk individuals.

Bill

It was in January that the commissioners court decided to put the operation of the North Central Texas Fusion Center out for competitive bid.

The Fusion Center was (and still is) being run by ADB Consulting of Santa Fe, New Mexico. ADB is wholly owned by Dr. Bob Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller. Dr. Johnson is the son of Plano's US Congressman Sam Johnson.

The commissioners were reacting to published reports detailing a series of no-bid contracts between the county and ADB Consulting going back over 5 years and at that time, totaling over $1 million.

Since that January decision, an RFQ was prepared and bids were solicited in February. The closing date for submission of all proposals was March 19. In the 4 months since the bids were received, the county has still not awarded the contract.

But while the county staff 'negotiates' or whatever it is they are doing, Dr. Bob and his ADB Consulting are still getting checks from Collin County.

A search through the county's check register shows that since January, the county has paid ADB over $ 76,000 in maintenance and consulting fees.

It looks like ADB will continue to be the no-bid vendor of choice until the county staff and commissioners court make a decision.

One of these days, they might just do that.

Bill

Over the last several years, the Collin County Commissioners Court has awarded "no bid" contracts in excess of $1.2 million to ADB Consulting of Santa Fe New Mexico. ADB is owned and operated by Dr. Bob Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller. Dr. Johnson is the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson of Plano.

These 'no bid" contracts awarded federal and state grant funds to ADB for construction and operation of the North Texas Fusion System.

The Fusion Center is a high-tech data center that collects, analyzes, and distributes data on possible terror and environmental threats. It is operated by Collin County, but mostly funded with federal homeland security grants.

Stung by criticism of insider dealings for not requiring ADB to submit competitive bids, the commissioners court in February put the contract for running the Fusion Center out for bid. WFAA's Brett Shipp reported that the county's Homeland Security Director, Kelley Stone acknowledged that Dr. Bob Johnson helped to write the bid specifications, even though ADB planned to submit a proposal.

The closing date, when all bids were required to be submitted, was March 19, 2009.

Yet almost 4 months later, no contract has been awarded.

Two months ago, I asked the county's Purchasing Agent, Frank Ybarbo what was holding up the award. "Were any qualified bids received?", I asked. Ybarbo told me that the county had indeed received 5 qualified bids. He confirmed that one of the 5 bidders was ADB Consulting.

Ybarbo told me that when bids are opened, the affected county department managers analyze them, and may take an option to further negotiate with one or more of the bidders. Nevertheless, Ybarbo thought that the bid would be ready for the Commissioners Court to make an award in late June.

The affected department head is Kelley Stone, who was the one who brought ADB and Dr. Bob into the Fusion Center. Stone has admitted that before now, no other vendor had been given an opportunity to quote work for the Fusion Center.

In fact, when back in 2007 another vendor, Sypherlink, attempted to bid on subcontracted work for ADB at the Fusion Center, its bid was thrown out in favor of another insider deal - this time for a company headed by Dr. Johnson's brother-in-law. Sypherlink wrote a letter to Kelley Stone and Frank Ybarbo, but the county took no action to enforce or report the alleged federal nepotism violations.

Federal grant money however, keeps rolling in. Recently, Congressman Ralph Hall submitted an earmark that would evade normal grant writing procedures and give the Fusion Center another $500,000 in federal funds for "Completion of the North Central Texas Fusion System".

After having a history of insider dealings with one politically well connected vendor (ADB) who actually helped write the bid specifications, the county has spent over 100 days "negotiating" rather than making an award.

There's a rotten smell beginning to come from this whole deal.

Bill

============================

Collin County Observer coverage of the NCTFS:

What's wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center?, CCO April 8, 2009

Fusion Center kills controversial newsletter, CCO April 6, 2009

Commissioners refuse Fusion Center grant that would benefit ADB, CCO March 13, 2009

Fusion Center vendor accused of nepotism and unfair competition, CCO March 8, 2009

Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Other media coverage:

Fusion Center's spending questioned in Collin County, WFAA Channel 8, May 2009

No More Lobbyist-Terrorists?, The Texas Observer, April 7, 2009

Dr. Bob's Terror Shop, The Texas Observer, April 2, 2009

Keystone Kounter-Terrorism, The Texas Observer, March 20, 2009

In Monday's commissioners court meeting, the Collin County Homeland Security Department will ask the commissioners to approve a $50,663 extension of the Emergency Alert Notification System, also known as CodeRed.

This is the third year of the CodeRed system. CodeRed is an automated telephone notification system that the county has used to warn citizens of impending weather emergencies.

Some past CodeRed system alerts have been criticized because the phone warnings came long after the storms had passed. CodeRed is activated by the county's Fusion center.

In answer to my inquiries, I was told by county Homeland Security officials that the CodeRed system was unable to telephone enough people to stay ahead of a large storm. I was told that there would be refinements made in both the system and in narrowing the scope of the alerts.

They must have narrowed the alerts pretty severely. Since 2008, tornado sirens near my home have sounded twice. Once for a small twister less than 2 miles from my house. Although I am registered with CodeRed, neither time did I get an alert call from the system.

In 2008, after a particularly damaging storm, city officials in Plano admitted that they relied on television news reports, not on the county's homeland security's Fusion Center.

Bill

UPDATE:

With no discussion, the court voted today to approve the contract extension by a 4-0 vote (Judge Self was absent)

Bill

Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast has an interesting article on the reasoning behind the FAA's reluctance to approve police unmanned aerial drones.

Grits noted that one aviation website explained the issue as, "Despite pressure from some law enforcement agencies, the FAA is holding firm to its policy against routine use of unmanned aerial vehicles. 'There is nothing to our knowledge and no UAS technology at this time that would allow unmanned aircraft to meet the same 'see and avoid' [regulatory technical] standard that manned aircraft have to operate under," FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.'"

The McKinney Courier-Gazette also wrote on the de facto ban on police drones, noting that experts are concerned that these unmanned aircraft can not see around them well enough to ensure the safety of traditional aircraft. One expert was quoted in the Courier-Gazette saying, "All (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) lack sense and avoid capability. A lot of work is being done on that in the aviation industry and our association is working on ways to safely integrate UAVs into airspace so they can share the same space with manned aircraft safely. We're not oppose UAVs. We're just not able to operate them safely in the same airspace with manned aircraft."

Bill

KDAF, Channel 33 reports that the Collin County Sheriff's $235,000 grant request to purchase 6 unmanned drones has been shot down by the FAA.

The Channel 33 story has a really cool video of a new Star Wars looking drone being tested in Miami.

Bill

=======================

Sheriff's Department Forced to Ground Drone Plan

Dawn Tongish / The 33 News
June 12, 2009

Watch video report

McKinney - The Collin County Sheriff's Department hoped to put drones on patrol, but the proposal may be grounded because of a twist that officials just discovered. A good chunk of the county is in restricted air space because of DFW Airport, making it off limits to the drones.

That is disappointing to McKinney Grandfather, Tommy Guynes. He would have liked to see the unmanned aircraft in the skies over Collin County, helping to keep the community safe. "We need to use all the technology we can to battle the evil that is in this world", says Guynes.

Officials with the sheriff's department hoped to add 6 of the remote-controlled drones, like those used in war zones like Afghanistan, to patrol from high in the sky. Authorities applied for a $235,000 government grant to make the purchases that would have been spread out over many police departments in the county.

But, Major Mike Anderson learned of the air space issue, Friday. "The FAA puts these controls on and that would include most of the Southwest corner of the county, along with much of Lake Lavon and those are the areas where this would have been most beneficial. It does give you eyes in the sky because now we are relying on Dallas Police and DPS for a helicopter when a search is underway".

The drone proposal is not without opposition. Kiley Gamble says she doesn't want drones snooping overhead. "I feel like they would infringe on privacy, even if they are intended for good use". But, it could be just a matter of time until the drones are a reality. The Federal Aviation Administration is doing test studies with police in Houston and Miami, trying to find a way to make drones work in urban areas.

FAA officials say they do want to work with police departments, but a spokesman says it has to find a way to make sure the technology is reliable and safe for people in the air and on the ground. But, Collin County officials aren't completely giving up on the dream of drones. They hope one day you'll see a high-flying police tool, sharing the skies.

link to article and video....

WFAA TV reports -

Fathers who lost loved ones work to change 911 system

11:19 AM CDT on Friday, June 12, 2009
By SHELLY SLATER / WFAA-TV

Watch Video Coverage

When you call 911 you expect help, but there are no federal standards for training 911 dispatchers.

Now a Collin County man who blames the 911 system, in part, for his son's death is asking why not?

Michael Cantrell is teaming up with a new friend who knows his pain.

Nathan Lee's wife, Denise, was kidnapped and murdered in Florida.

She called 911 and so did a witness, but the call was never dispatched. Police never knew she needed help.

Tragedy brought the two fathers together.

Cantrell's son, Matthew, accidentally hanged himself in their backyard soccer net.

The family's call to 911 heeded little help.

Dispatchers gave no medical advice and then transferred the call, wasting precious minutes they believe could have saved their son.

"We've kind of built a long distance friendship over the last couple of months," Lee says of Cantrell.

And now, with the same motivations, the two men are pushing for federal standards for 911 operators.

"Like federal air traffic controllers, it's a federal mandating thing, but for some reason 911 isn't," Lee said.

"It's not magic," says Cantrell, "when you call 911 that everything is going to go smoothly."

The men are appealing to the federal level to create a uniform 911 system.

Currently, regulations can vary by state, even by county.

Lee says that's not good enough.

"In my eyes you truly are the first line of defense for homeland security," Lee told a group of emergency professionals. .

From better training to better equipment, the hope is to eliminate error.

read more and watch video....

Previous CCO coverage:

Family sues City of Murphy over tot's death, CCO, May 21, 2009

The law suit filed May 19, 2009 - Cause No. 6:09-cv-225

Revisiting the Cantrell tragedy - Murphy 911 and emergency response times CCO, December 14, 2008

Murphy City Manager's report on toddler death clears officer's actions CCO, November 18, 2008

Cover up in Murphy? Is city telling the real story of toddlers death? CCO, November 17, 2008

Yesterday was the 60th birthday of George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which portrayed a future in which government surveillance was a pervasive tool of government control over individual actions.

While Orwell's novel has become one of the world's all time best sellers, here in the real world 1984 has come and gone - fortunately without the repressions predicted by Mr. Orwell.

The Collin County Observer would like to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four with the following tidbit:

Last week, the Collin County Sheriff's Department gained approval from the Commissioners' Court to request $235,000 in Federal stimulus grants to purchase 6 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

These UAVs are remote controlled airplanes equipped with cameras and are similar to the military's Predator drones used in Afghanistan and Iraq for reconnaissance and to call in bomb and cruise missile strikes. The grant application explains that, "They may be launched by one person. The UAVs will carry a gyro-stabilized camera and may remain aloft for over 1 hour depending on the payload."

"Once launched the operation would then be supported from a nearby command post by trained personnel. From this vantage point real time video transmissions would prove invaluable to deputies and officers on the ground involved in the operation. Real-time decisions could be made that would have immediate impact on the result of the event, safety of the officers, citizens involved, as well as the general public."

The Collin County Sheriff has no intention of calling for Air Force bombing runs, but does see a need to use the drones as an economical alternative to purchasing a real helicopter.

According to the grant application, "A major problem for the law enforcement agencies in Collin County is that there are no air support capabilities within the County. The closest air support for Collin County is Dallas Police Department or the Texas Department of Public Safety. Both have helicopters but are generally only available for emergency purposes. Within the last two years, the Collin County Sheriff’s Office has requested air support from either Dallas PD or DPS on numerous occasions for problems such as fugitives at large, drownings, and missing children. In some of the cases either DPD or DPS was able to respond, but only after a lengthy delay. There were numerous other incidents that would have benefited by air surveillance. These include major crowd gatherings, pursuits, narcotics surveillance, illegal dumping, tactical support, and natural disasters."

The Sheriff's Department would use the grant funds to purchase 6 of these UAVs. One would be run by the Sheriff's personnel, the other 5 would be doled out to the Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Wylie Police Departments.

As far as I know, the county has not requested matching cruise missiles to be used against our illegal dumpers.

Winston Smith

Notes:

JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAG) Addendum

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, June 8, 1949

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the movie, 1984

Fusion Center's spending questioned in Collin County

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Brett Shipp / WFAA

Watch Video

The North Central Texas Fusion Center is Collin County's new criminal and intelligence data gathering center.

But, it may be gathering more criticism than acclaim as questions mount about how the million dollars to fund it are being spent.

Fusion centers began springing up after 9/11. Funded mostly by grants, they were fostered by the need for law enforcement to better share information.

Collin County's North Central Fusion Center has drawn national attention, but not for its innovation. Instead, the spotlight is due to its questionable operations and relationships of the man who created the center.

Tucked away inside the Collin County Sheriff's Office and behind a set of secure doors is a post-9/11 world where security meets technology.

The North Central Texas Fusion System is an award-winning nerve center for gathering and sharing criminal and crisis information to 94 agencies via the Internet.

The operator and architect is acclaimed computer scientist Dr. Bob Johnson, who works out of his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He's also known as the son of local Congressman Sam Johnson.

Since 2004, Collin County has awarded Johnson $1.2 million to design and operate the center.

But some say Johnson's mission has taken a sharp right turn away from computer science and towards political science, blurring the line between public protection and propaganda.

Last February, Johnson warned of "Middle Eastern Terrorist Groups" infiltrating organizations such as "The Council on American Islamic Relations." He spoke of a growing Muslim influence in America, including "airport footbaths," "public school prayer breaks to accommodate Muslim students" and "hip hop fashion boutiques" where terrorists go to recruit.

He also has warned of terrorists "operating in the North Central Texas region ... meeting at smoke shops and other locations to organize and plan attacks."

Johnson issued weekly "Prevention Awareness Bulletins" that featured "threat indicators." When Homeland Security officials found out, they ordered him to stop. The American Civil Liberties Union said Johnson's bulletins set off an immediate alarm.

"What we warned about, and now what we are seeing, is that too often these entities tend to look at people who disagree with public policies as potential terrorists," said Mike German, with ACLU in Washington D.C.

Bill Baumbach's Collin County Observer blog monitors local government business.

"And I thought it was one of the more bigoted, paranoid pieces I have ever seen on government stationery," he said of the bulletins.

He was the first to raise questions about the Fusion Center's operations and expenses. The Fusion Center's 2004 start-up budget was $67,000. In 2005, the price tag jumped to a quarter of a million dollars. In 2006, the year the center actually opened, the costs dropped to $77,000.

But from there, Johnson's billings grew to $368,000 in 2007.

Last year, Johnson billed Collin County nearly half a million dollars to maintain and add to the system.

Johnson said the budget has grown as the system improves.

"I wanted to see what it was about," Baumbach said. "But what I found out was a bunch of politically-connected insider nepotism that was going on. The commissioner's court was not paying attention."

Collin County Commissioner Joe Jaynes may be the exception. He has questioned not only the expenses, but the ethics as well.

"I've probably been watching it closer than most because of my concern," he said.

Among his concerns, Johnson's awarding of a $100,000 sub-contract to a software firm called Bassham and Associates. It turns out the owner, Elbert Bassham, is Johnson's brother-in law. Bassham's business address is a post office box in Marfa, Texas.

His website is designed similarly to Collin County's Fusion Center, which was designed by Johnson.

"I have a major concern with that," Jaynes said. "I've expressed my concern with that. Technically it's all legal. It's above board. But quite frankly, it doesn't pass the smell test."

Meanwhile, Collin County's contract with Johnson was never put out for bids.

Collin County Emergency Management Director Kelley Stone said he handpicked Johnson to run the center.

Stone said he chose Johnson based on his professional reputation and was not influenced by his father.

Since questions started surfacing about some of Johnson's operations, Collin County Commissioners have decided to put the center's operations up for bid.

Not only is Johnson bidding on the project, he has also played a major role in writing the bid specifications.

link to article and video....

Collin County Observer coverage of the NCTFS:

What's wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center?, CCO April 8, 2009

Fusion Center kills controversial newsletter, CCO April 6, 2009

Commissioners refuse Fusion Center grant that would benefit ADB, CCO March 13, 2009

Fusion Center vendor accused of nepotism and unfair competition, CCO March 8, 2009

Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Collin County
Health Advisory: Swine Influenza

As of late Wednesday, May 6th, 2009, the H1N1? (swine flu) case count for Collin County is:

Confirmed Cases: 3
Probable Cases: 7

Meanwhile, Collin County Health Care Services (CCHCS) would like to share the following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control released Tuesday afternoon:

• As of today, school closures are not advised for a suspected or confirmed case of novel influenza A (H1N1) and, in general, are not advised unless there is a magnitude of faculty or student absenteeism that interferes with the school’s ability to function.
• Schools that were closed based on previous interim CDC guidance related to this outbreak may reopen.
• Students, faculty or staff with influenza-like illness (fever with a cough or sore throat) should stay home and not attend school or go into the community except to seek medical care for at least 7 days even if symptoms resolve sooner.
• Students, faculty and staff who are still sick 7 days after they become ill should continue to stay home from school until at least 24 hours after symptoms have resolved.
• Students, faculty and staff who appear to have an influenza-like illness at arrival or become ill during the school day should be isolated promptly in a room separate from other students and sent home.
• Parents and guardians should monitor their school-aged children, and faculty and staff should self-monitor every morning for symptoms of influenza-like illness.
• Ill students should not attend alternative child care or congregate in settings other than school.
• School administrators should communicate regularly with local public health officials to obtain guidance about reporting of influenza-like illnesses in the school.
• Schools can help serve as a focus for educational activities aimed at promoting ways to reduce the spread of influenza, including hand hygiene and cough etiquette.
• Students, faculty and staff should stringently follow sanitary measures to reduce the spread of influenza, including covering their nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing (or coughing or sneezing into their sleeve if a tissue isn’t available), frequently washing hands with soap and water, or using hand sanitizer if hand washing with soap and water is not possible.

Also, Plano Independent School District officials announced to day that the three schools closed earlier due to concerns over swine flu will now reopen on May 6.

For a complete copy of the above-referenced document, please see the following link: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/K12_dismissal.htm. For up to the moment information on this public health concern, please visit: www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu and www.dshs.state.tx.us/swineflu. CCHCS health advisories and updates can be viewed at: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/.

Note: Plano schools closed for swine flu will re-open today

Bill

=================================

Health Care Services

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

May 5, 2009

HEALTH ADVISORY: H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu)

(McKINNEY, Texas) – As of late Tuesday, May 5th, 2009, the H1N1 (swine flu) case count for Collin County is:

Confirmed Cases: 3
Probable Cases: 4

Collin County Health Care Services (CCHCS) would like to share the following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that was released Tuesday afternoon:

• As of today, school closures are not advised for a suspected or confirmed case of novel influenza A (H1N1) and, in general, are not advised unless there is a magnitude of faculty or student absenteeism that interferes with the school’s ability to function.
• Schools that were closed based on previous interim CDC guidance related to this outbreak may reopen.
• Students, faculty or staff with influenza-like illness (fever with a cough or sore throat) should stay home and not attend school or go into the community except to seek medical care for at least 7 days even if symptoms resolve sooner.
• Students, faculty and staff who are still sick 7 days after they become ill should continue to stay home from school until at least 24 hours after symptoms have resolved.
• Students, faculty and staff who appear to have an influenza-like illness at arrival or become ill during the school day should be isolated promptly in a room separate from other students and sent home.
• Parents and guardians should monitor their school-aged children, and faculty and staff should self-monitor every morning for symptoms of influenza-like illness.
• Ill students should not attend alternative child care or congregate in settings other than school.
• School administrators should communicate regularly with local public health officials to obtain guidance about reporting of influenza-like illnesses in the school.
• Schools can help serve as a focus for educational activities aimed at promoting ways to reduce the spread of influenza, including hand hygiene and cough etiquette.
• Students, faculty and staff should stringently follow sanitary measures to reduce the spread of influenza, including covering their nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing (or coughing or sneezing into their sleeve if a tissue isn’t available), frequently washing hands with soap and water, or using hand sanitizer if hand washing with soap and water is not possible.

For a complete copy of the above-referenced document, please see the following link: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/K12_dismissal.htm.

For up to the moment information on this public health concern, please visit: www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu and www.dshs.state.tx.us/swineflu.

CCHCS health advisories and updates can be viewed at: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/.

=================

Collin County Health Advisory: Swine Influenza

As of Monday morning, May 4, 2009, this is the count on Swine Influenza from Collin County’s health authority:

Confirmed Cases: 1
Probable Cases: 3
Schools Closed: 3

Health authorities confirmed the first local case of Swine Flu, a 14-year-old Plano middle school student, after test results were verified by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control last week.

According to Collin County Health Care Services and the Plano Health Authority a student at Wilson Middle School is the only confirmed case of H1N1? Influenza, with two more “probable” cases in the county under investigation by health authorities.

The Plano Independent School District announced Sunday, May 3, that Barron Early Childhood School and Sigler Elementary School will be closed until May 18, due to a few strong probable cases of Influenza A H1N1? virus (swine flu). Wilson Middle School, originally schedule to be closed until May 11, will also remain closed until May 18.

The two-week closures are based on U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations because children are likely to be infectious for about 7–10 days after the onset of illness.

Residents are advised to take a few preventative measures to protect themselves against this respiratory disease.

Collin County Health Care Services (CCHCS) is working closely with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to provide guidance for the public and health providers.

For Collin County buildings, our Facilities Management staff is taking extra precautions in sanitizing public, employee and common areas to help lessen the spread of Swine Flu Housekeeping personnel will clean all areas with a disinfecting solution several times during the work day, as well after their regular hours routine.

Collin County Epidemiology, Health Department, and Homeland Security staff members will continue to provide updates and guidelines for health care providers, and school administrators. We will continue to update this page daily until public health concerns over Swine Flu subside.

read more....

As of late Friday afternoon, May 1, 2009, this is the count on Swine Influenza from Collin County’s health authority:

Confirmed Cases: 1

Probable Cases: 3

Schools Closed: 1

Health authorities confirmed the first local case of Swine Flu, a 14-year-old Plano middle school student, after test results were verified by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control earlier today.

According to Collin County Health Care Services and the Plano Health Authority a student at Wilson Middle School is the only confirmed case of H1N1? Influenza, with two more “probable” cases in the county under investigation by health authorities.

Residents are advised to take a few preventative measures to protect themselves against this respiratory disease.

Collin County Health Care Services (CCHCS) is working closely with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to provide guidance for the public and health providers.

For Collin County buildings, our Facilities Management staff is taking extra precautions in sanitizing public, employee and common areas to help lessen the spread of Swine Flu Housekeeping personnel will clean all areas with a disinfecting solution several times during the work day, as well after their regular hours routine.

Collin County Epidemiology, Health Department, and Homeland Security staff members will continue to provide updates and guidelines for health care providers, and school administrators. We will continue to update this page daily until public health concerns over Swine Flu subside.

Read more on the Collin County Swine Flu website.....

Update to the update: May 3, 2009 8:19 PM

The Dallas Morning News reports that two more Plano ISD schools will close due to possible swine flu infections. Plano ISD officials announced Sunday that Barron Early Childhood School and Sigler Elementary School are closed until May 18.

The DMN's article also mentions two probable cases of swine flu at Thomas Hicks Elementary School in Frisco. Thomas Hicks Elementary is in the Lewisville ISD, which has already closed all its campuses.

See Plano ISD closes two more schools because of probable swine flu cases, The Dallas Morning News, May 3, 2009

Bill

Collin County Health Care Services
825 N. McDonald? St. Suite 130
McKinney?, Texas 75069
www.collincountytx.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 30, 2009
HEALTH ADVISORY: Swine Influenza

(McKINNEY, Texas) – No confirmed cases of swine influenza A virus have been reported in Collin County as of late Wednesday afternoon, April 29, 2009.

Epidemiologic investigations being conducted by Collin County Health Care Services (CCHCS) are ongoing. We are also diligently working with physicians throughout the county to respond to this ongoing public health concern.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the outbreak of disease in people caused by a new influenza virus of swine origin continues to grow in the United States and internationally. Today, CDC reports additional confirmed human infections, hospitalizations and the nation’s first fatality from this outbreak. The more recent illnesses and the reported death suggest that a pattern of more severe illness associated with this virus may be emerging in the U.S. (See Table below)

Some useful resources for persons who have questions regarding swine flu are as follows:

Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has activated a hotline for people to call with questions about swine flu. The hotline is available from 7 am to 7 pm and can be reached by dialing 1-888-777-5320.

• The CDC can be reached by phone at 1-800-CDC-INFO, or by email at cdcinfo@cdc.gov
• For updates on Collin County’s website, please visit our News and Advisory link on the CCHCS web page at http://www.co.collin.tx.us/healthcare_services

To protect against becoming sick, take the following steps:

• Cover your cough!—Make sure to cough or sneeze into a tissue or sleeve to prevent the spread of germs
• Wash your hands!—Thorough hand washing with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs; Alcohol based hand sanitizers are also recommended when soap and water are not available
• Keep hands off!—Germs are easily spread from person to person or person to surfaces when you touch your eyes nose or mouth first
• Sick? Stay home!—Staying home from school or work when you are ill helps prevent the spread of illness

U.S. Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
(As of April 29, 2009, 11 a.m. ET)

International Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
See: World Health Organization

April 30 5:45 PM UPDATE:

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE
April 30, 2009

HEALTH ADVISORY: 1st Swine Flu case confirmed; two probable cases being investigated

(McKINNEY, Texas) – Health authorities confirmed the first local case of Swine Flu, a 14-year-old Plano middle school student, after test results were verified by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control earlier today.

According to Collin County Health Care Services and the Plano Health Authority a student at Wilson Middle School is the only confirmed case ofH1N1 Influenza, with two more “probable” cases in the county under investigation by health authorities.

For updates and more information on a local and national basis, please logon to www.collincountytx.gov.

On April 1, Congressman Ralph Hall (R-Rockwall) submitted a $500,000 earmark to the House Appropriations Committee for "Completion of North Central Texas Fusion System."

If past history means anything, the lion's share of this $500,000 will go directly to the son and daughter in-law of Hall's fellow Congressman Sam Johnson. So far, over $1.1 million of federal grant money for development of the Fusion Center has gone to ADB, a small company owned by Dr. Bob Johnson and his wife Anita Miller and operated out of their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hall's earmark listing states, "I am requesting funding for the Completion of North Central Texas Fusion System in fiscal year 2010. The entity to receive this program is the Collin County Homeland Security on behalf of the North Central Texas Fusion System"

A presentation prepared this month by the fusion center's manager, Kelley Stone for the commissioners court (but never presented to them) showed that federal funding for the county's Homeland Security Department is decreasing.

In fiscal year 2003, the county received over $1.1 million dollars in federal Homeland Security grants. These grants to the county have decreased almost every year, such that in FY 2008 the county only was awarded a little over $501 thousand.

As long as federal grant levels for the fusion center remain unstable, it is far from certain that the federal government will continue to make adequate fusion center funds available in future budget years.

The county commissioners have expressed the fear that if federal funds are decreased or eliminated, the Homeland Security Department and especially the fusion center will become a kind of unfunded mandate paid for by county tax revenues.

Future federal fusion center funding could be harder to obtain after recent revelations of alleged nepotism by ADB, and after an alert bulletin put out by the Fusion Center sparked a congressional hearing and swift visit from federal HS Department officials to "re-train" local fusion center employees.

Collin County might find the recent federal grand jury summoning of the local fusion center manager in Cuyahoga County, Ohio for possible grant fund fraud far more troubling than any unfunded mandate.

Meanwhile, Ralph Hall's earmark could be Dr. Bob Johnson's best hope for a Collin County meal ticket in 2010.

Bill

Last week, a sub-committee of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee held a public hearing titled, "The Future of Fusion Centers: Potential Promise and Dangers”.

The dominant topics of the hearing were Collin County's own North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS), and an op-ed written by libertarian Bruce Fein and published in the Washington Times.

Mr. Fein, who at one time worked for Former VP Dick Cheney, raised the hackles of the committee members with his assertions that Fusion Centers were a threat to American citizens' individual liberties. His Times article titled, "Surveilling for clues of evil intent: An American Stasi operating in 'fusion centers'?", began with the provocative statement that:

"The Soviet Union had its KGB, East Germany had its Stasi, and the United States should profit by those examples. It should abandon fusion centers that engage 800,000 state and local law enforcement officers in the business of gathering and sharing purported domestic or international terrorism intelligence. The vast majority conceive this task as synonymous with monitoring and scorning political dissent and association protected by the First Amendment."

Mr Fein's article uses the NCTFS as an illustration of the dangers inherent in fusion centers:

"On Feb. 19, the North Central Texas Fusion System issued a routine Prevention Awareness Bulletin that easily might have been penned by recruits from East Germany's Stasi. In bold letters, the bulletin worries that freedom of speech, the freedom to petition government for redress of grievances, and freedom of association are being exploited by Islamic groups to advance their Islamic-based goals by peaceful and lawful means. In other words, democracy is the enemy."

"To a hammer everything looks like a nail. To an intelligence agent, informant or law enforcement officer, everything unconventional or unorthodox looks like at least a pre-embryonic terrorist danger."

Fein ends his op-ed by noting that:

"Timothy McVeigh was not a prime suspect in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Arab Muslims were. Because anything might be a clue as to a possible psychological inclination to commit terrorism, everything is fair game for intelligence collection. But when everything is relevant, nothing is relevant. That may explain why there is no credible evidence that fusion centers have frustrated a single terrorist plot - their primary raison d'etre."

"They are no more American than was the House Un-American Activities Committee, and they deserve the same fate."

While committee members (and this writer) disagree with Fein's inflammatory assessment, his article does illustrate the national debate touched off by the release of the NCTFS's bulletin.

The NCTFS gained this national notoriety after the Collin County Observer released a "Public Awareness Bulletin" (PAB) written by the NCTFS and sent to several hundred law enforcement agencies and first responders. Within hours after we released the PAB, the national ACLU issued a press release warning of the dangers of inciting anti-Muslim prejudice.

Ms. Caroline Fredrickson, the Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union, testified at a March 18, 2009 public hearing held by the US House Committee on Homeland Security on the NCTFS's bulletin:

"Last month a Texas fusion center supported by DHS released an intelligence bulletin that described a purported conspiracy between Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbying groups, the anti-war movement, a former U.S. Congresswoman, the U.S. Treasury Department and hip hop bands to spread Sharia law in the U.S.30 The bulletin, which reportedly is sent to over 100 different agencies, would be laughable except that it comes with the imprimatur of a federally backed intelligence operation, and it directs law enforcement officers to monitor the activities of these groups in their areas. The ACLU has long warned that these state, local and regional intelligence fusion centers lacked proper oversight and accountability and we hope the discovery of this shockingly inappropriate report leads to much needed examination and reform."

Among those testifying at the April 1st Congressional hearing were John Bateman of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Robert Riegle from the US Department of Homeland Security.

"a demonstration of what not to do"
David Gersten, US DHS on the NCTFS's February Public Awareness Bulletin

Both decried the NCTFS's bulletin, which was written by Dr. Bob Johnson, the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson of Plano. The Texas Observer notes that Mr. Riegle testified:

"We took immediate and aggressive response to the bulletin... we immediately sent a team of civil liberties and civil rights experts down to the state of Texas to work directly with the center."

"This included advocates from the Muslim-American community in the United States of America. We also then immediately altered the directors’ meeting at the national conference to emphasize the importance of this and went over this particular oversight error as aggressively as we possibly could."

John Bateman told the committee that, "Chief Kelley Stone of the North Central Texas Fusion System took responsibility for this. [ed. note - even though the PAB was written by Dr. Johnson] He met with Rob Riegle and their staff. They’re implemented new review and editing policies, and they’ve met with people and are retraining everyone in the area of privacy and civil liberties."

And David Gersten the Acting Deputy Officer for Programs and Compliance
Department of Homeland Security added, “We brought the subject up at the National Fusion Center Conference and trained [DHS analysts] using that product as a demonstration of what not to do.”

Gersten also told the committee that DHS would be detaching an intelligence analyst to the NCTFS and that person would also receive additional privacy and civil liberties training.

Was the now infamous Public Awareness Bulletin simply the result of poor judgment or is it indicative of more systemic problems in the county's NCTFS?

My research into the NCTFS is yielding troubling indications that this county's fusion center may be operating in a manner that shows the issuance of the PAB symptomatic of deep seated problems.

For example, Texas has a State Fusion Center that reports to the DPS and the North Texas Region has a law enforcement operation similar to a fusion center.

The North Texas operation is called the Law Enforcement Analysis Portal or LEAP. LEAP uses data from many police and sheriff's departments in the region to create a database that allows participating agencies to access data from all jurisdictions and to use a highly sophisticated interface to ask questions that highlight similarities between offenses and possible suspects.

I spoke to an official close to LEAP and he described a system of written agreements between agencies that insured that sensitive data remained the property of the originating agency and that privacy concerns were addressed. Federal standards for Fusion Centers recommend similar agreements or MOUs (Memoranda of Understanding) be signed by all Fusion Centers and the agencies supplying databases to the centers.

Yet, when I submitted an Open Records Request to the NCTFS, all I received were agreements with local police departments. Even though its own literature boasts of regional, state and national security data being used by the Fusion Center, I was told that there were "no written agreements with any state of federal agency". That admission would indicate that there are also no formal standards of ownership, security or privacy safeguards.

LEAP uses software and database technologies that are commercially supported and have been in use by several organizations for years. In contrast, the NCTFS relies to a large extent on custom written programs and systems developed for it by Dr. Johnson.

Another concern is with the management of the NCTFS. Until last week, the NCTFS directed technical questions to the primary architect and technical person at the fusion center. That person is Dr. Bob Johnson, who lives not in Texas, but in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The manager of the center was listed as Anita Miller. Ms. Miller is the wife of Dr. Johnson. Together, Miller and Johnson are ADB, a two person company that has been paid over one million dollars to build and operate the NCTFS. After the firestorm over the PAB, Dr. Bob and Anita Miller's names were removed from the NCTFS website and replaced with generic "helpdesk@fusionsystem.us".

Entrusting the management of this critical multi-million dollar operation to a husband and wife team who live 600 miles away should raise questions about managerial probity at NCTFS.

Last year, DHS issued a report titled, "Privacy Impact Assessment for the Department of Homeland Security State, Local, and Regional Fusion Center Initiative". This report called for several safeguards against fusion center intrusion into the privacy of American Citizens.

Among the guidelines listed in the Privacy Impact Assessment and in the DHS Manual on Fusion Center Guidelines are:

The establishment of a broad-based community "Privacy Committee" with members drawn from diverse local groups. [I find no such Privacy Committee that advises the NCTFS.]

Draft a clear and understandable privacy policy and prominently display the policy for customers, citizens and fusion staff. [The NCTFS's website has no such policy available.]

In their testimony before the House Committee, both DHS officials stressed that they and the fusion centers should welcome public requests for information, should strive for transparency. This writer would love to test that policy, but repeated inquiries to Kelley Stone (the Director of the Collin County Homeland Security Department and the chief official at the fusion center) go unanswered.

I do believe there is a role for fusion centers. While there are real privacy and civil liberties concerns with these large intelligence operations, these have begun to be addressed by other fusion systems and by Congress. However, the huge data silos on citizens maintained by these fusion centers must be carefully monitored and regulated to insure that our liberties remain inviolate.

Local fusion centers, such as the NCTFS operate with very little professional oversight. The NCTFS is primarily responsible to the County Commissioners Court, and I don't believe the commissioners are qualified nor inclined to adequately supervise a police and intelligence operation. To prevent excess zeal and to insure that effective policies are enforced, direct supervision of the local fusion centers by the Texas DPS or US DHS would seem to be only prudent.

As the issuance of the February PAB loudly demonstrated, the NCTFS is in need of oversight and training. Relying on a two person, out-of-state, politically connected contractor and a political commissioners court is a recipe for disaster.

Bill

Notes:

The Prevention Awareness Bulletin, NCTFS Feb. 19, 2009

Surveilling for clues of evil intent, Bruce Fein, The Washington Times, April 1, 2009

“The Future of Fusion Centers: Potential Promise and Dangers”, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, April 01, 2009

“Homeland Security Intelligence: Its Relevance and Limitations”, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, March 18, 2009

Fusion Center Guidelines, US Dept. of Justice and US Dept. of Homeland Security, 2008

Privacy Impact Assessment for the Department of Homeland Security State, Local, and Regional Fusion Center Initiative, US Dept. of Homeland Security, 2008

28 CFR Part 23 Guideline: CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS OPERATING POLICIES, Code of Federal Regulations

North Central Texas Fusion System home page

Fusion Center Encourages Improper Investigations Of Lobbying Groups And Anti-War Activists, ACLU April, 2009

No More Lobbyist-Terrorists?, The Texas Observer, April 7, 2009

Dr. Bob's Terror Shop, The Texas Observer, April 2, 2009

Keystone Kounter-Terrorism, The Texas Observer, March 20, 2009

Fusion Center kills controversial newsletter, CCO April 6, 2009

Commissioners refuse Fusion Center grant that would benefit ADB, CCO March 13, 2009

Fusion Center vendor accused of nepotism and unfair competition, CCO March 8, 2009

Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Collin County's fusion center, the NCTFS, came under national criticism last month when its newsletter, the Preventive Awareness Bulletin, used ultra-right websites as a basis for declaring that "mainstream Muslim" organizations were gaining success in endeavors such as establishing a sharia law in the US.

The newsletter used inflammatory internet rumors to call for law enforcement to report on legal lobbying and protest activities by Muslin and anti-war groups, prompting a response from the national office of the ACLU.

The controversial PAB was written by Dr. Robert Johnson, the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson and the prime contractor to the fusion center.

The PAB, stamped "For Official Use Only", is published weekly and is distributed to several hundred law enforcement and other first responder agencies in the North Texas region.

This week's edition, acknowledges what I've been hearing from several sources - which is that most of the recipients of the newsletter consider it a waste of time and toss it in the trash without reading it.

This latest PAB leads with a statement that, "In prioritizing our resources, we also understand that you must prioritize your limited time. Therefore, we will no longer be sending weekly bulletins. However, we will continue to send periodic updates, resources, information and analysis that we believe to be of value to you."

Such is the inglorious end of the Preventive Awareness Bulletin.

The North Central Texas Fusion System is a law enforcement and domestic intelligence data sharing/analysis center housed in the Sheriff's offices but operated by the county's Homeland Security Department. It is funded by federal grants and county taxes.

Dr. Johnson and his company ADB have been awarded over $1 million in county 'no-bid' contracts to build and operate the NCTFS. ADB has also also been criticized for its practices at the NCTFS, including improperly awarding sub-contracted NCTFS work to family members.

Bill

Forrest Wilder of the Texas Observer has been researching the North Central Texas Fusion System. In today's Observer he reports on the loose and vague system that purports to keep us safe in the War on Terror.

Bill

=================================================

Dr. Bob's Terror Shop

The strange and scary story of the North Central Texas Fusion System.

Forrest Wilder, The Texas Observer
April 03, 2009

One morning in February, more than 2,000 cops, fire marshals, and public health officials in the Dallas-Fort Worth area received a memo—stamped “For Official Use Only”—that contained shocking information: Middle Eastern terrorists and “their supporting organizations” had gained a stronghold in America. The memo warned:

A number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations. ... [T]he threats to Texas are significant.

Who were these Osama bin Lobbyists who had convinced Americans to support terrorism? Citing a grab bag of right-wing blogs and news sources, the memo lists the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the International Action Center, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism—“ANSWER”—and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It also suggests that a class on Islamic finance taught at the Treasury Department “indicates the possibility that the government hopes to secure recycled petrodollars in exchange for conforming to Shariah economic doctrine.” The memo ends by calling on law enforcement to “report” the activities of the organizations.

The missive reads like a rant by a paranoid conspiracy nut. In fact, the so-called “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” is a weekly product of the North Central Texas Fusion System, a terrorism and crime-prevention intelligence center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security. The system gathers and shares information for a 16-county area that includes Dallas and Forth Worth. The bulletin is written by the architect and operator of the fusion system, Bob Johnson, a former chief scientist for defense contractor Raytheon Co. Johnson has a background in data mining, the controversial, computer-aided practice of trolling massive quantities of data in pursuit of patterns and links.

At Raytheon, Johnson oversaw a short-lived project in Garland for the U.S. Special Forces Command that mined public information as well as classified files to sniff out Al-Qaida. The program, identified in congressional testimony as Able Danger, generated attention in 2005 and 2006 when former Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, claimed that Able Danger had identified Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, before the terror attacks. Weldon asserted that Johnson had told him that he personally had identified Atta. The allegations fired up 9/11 conspiracy buffs, but were dismissed by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Inspector General of the Department of Defense.

Among his critics in Texas, Johnson is better known as “Son of Sam”—the son of U.S Rep. Sam Johnson, the conservative Republican congressman who has represented Collin County since 1992.

In 2004, Collin County tapped ADB Consulting LLC, which stands for Anita and Dr. Bob, to build the fusion system. Anita Miller, also a former Raytheon employee, is Johnson’s wife. On the couple’s personal Web site, anitaanddrbob.com, which has since been taken down, they wrote that they were “ecstatic” to “be implementing a system similar to what we have advocated since before 9/11 for the security of our homeland. For us, the Fusion System is a dream come true!”

Their dream has been profitable. Since 2004, Anita and Dr. Bob have received $1.1 million in no-bid contracts. At least $80,000 of that money has been passed along, in the form of a subcontract, to Anita’s brother, Elbert Bassham, who runs a one-person consulting firm listed at a Marfa post-office box that he shares with a beauty salon.

“I’m not aware of any other fusion center that has a husband-and-wife team building, running, and managing it,” says James Paat, CEO of Sypherlink Inc., an Ohio-based data integration company that lost the subcontract. In a 2007 letter to Collin County, Paat accused ADB Consulting of rigging the scoring process and asked that the contract be rescinded.

Funding for the fusion system comes from state and federal Homeland Security grants as well as Collin County funds.

“It certainly has the stench of corruption,” says Mohamed Elibiary, an interfaith leader from Plano who has called for more oversight of fusion systems. Collin County put management of the fusion center up for competitive bidding in March, but County Judge Keith Self says the system is so customized that it’s unlikely that anyone else can run it.

Contacted by the Observer at his home in Santa Fe, Johnson said he wouldn’t respond to media inquiries. Asked whether he has a responsibility to taxpayers to answer questions about the system, Johnson responded, “I have a responsibility to Collin County; that’s all.”

The February bulletin isn’t the only questionable Johnson product. He has designed tools that purport to measure, at any given moment, the threat of terrorism at the global, regional, and local levels. The World Terrorism Metric relies on computer models that crunch vast quantities of raw information culled from the Internet. The threat level is presented on a gauge; the needle moves as the terror risk increases or decreases.

Johnson claims the output is unbiased. The assumptions built into the model are certainly inventive. Factors include the price of a barrel of oil (divided by three), the level of democratic activity as measured by the number of business-related words in Internet news stories, and the movement of options contracts (Johnson trades options on the side). Happily, in February the North Central Texas gauge registered a threat level of zero.

It’s tempting to dismiss the fusion center as one man’s risible, if expensive, computer science project. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took the menacing February memo seriously enough that it sent a three-person team to train North Texas fusion personnel on federal rules. In 2007, a former senior intelligence analyst for the Collin County fusion system described the center to an online trade publication as the “wild west,” a place where analysts could try out new technologies before “politics” caught up with them.

So what, exactly, is Dr. Bob building in there?

read the rest of the story here....

The North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) is operated by Collin County's Department of Homeland Security out of a room at the sheriff's office building.

The Collin County Observer released a copy of the February 19th "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" written and distributed by the NCTFS. The newsletter's message was that mainstream Muslim organizations were infiltrating American institutions, with the goal of gaining support for "Islamic-based issues".

The newsletter asked law enforcement to report legal, political behavior. Citing 'evidence' gathered from fringe conspiracy web sites, the article went so far as to say that because of lobbying efforts by Islamic groups, "the threats to Texas are significant."

Last Week, Caroline Fredrickson of the ACLU testified before the US House Homeland Security Committee. Speaking of the NCTFS's bulletin, Ms. Fredrickson testified, "Last month a Texas fusion center supported by DHS released an intelligence bulletin that described a purported conspiracy between Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbying groups, the anti-war movement, a former U.S. Congresswoman, the U.S. Treasury Department and hip hop bands to spread Sharia law in the U.S.30 The bulletin, which reportedly is sent to over 100 different agencies, would be laughable except that it comes with the imprimatur of a federally backed intelligence operation, and it directs law enforcement officers to monitor the activities of these groups in their areas."

The NCTFS calls itself an "all hazards" fusion center. All hazards generally means that the system is trying to compile, combine and assess law enforcement, commercial, internet and national intelligence data in the local region. These fusion centers attempt to gather and store huge amounts of data on the activities not only of criminals, but of local citizens. Even the US Department of Homeland Security has been wary of privacy risks in these "all hazards" centers.

In December of 2008, the DHS issued a "Privacy Impact Statement" on regional fusion centers. The DHS report called for the establishment of community oversight committees and the prominent public disclosure of privacy policies, information collected and how the information will be used.

The NCTFS has not subscribed to nor adhered to these guidelines.

Bill

=============================================

Keystone Kounter-Terrorism
HUNTING RADICALS IN NORTH TEXAS

March 20,2009
By Forrest Wilder / The Texas Observer

A bizarre, conspiracy-laden memo sent to almost 3,000 cops, fire marshals and public-health officials in North Texas links mainstream Muslim-rights organizations and anti-war groups to Middle Eastern terrorists, and calls on law enforcement to “report these types of activities.”

The leaked memo, dated Feb. 19 and labeled “For Official Use Only,” is one in a weekly series of “Prevention Awareness Bulletins” put out by the North Central Texas Fusion System, a regional intelligence-gathering center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security. Five such fusion centers, designed to consolidate and share intelligence with law-enforcement agencies, have been created in Texas since 9/11.

The bulletin has increased fears among civil libertarians and Metroplex Muslims that the North Central Texas Fusion System has edged into spying.

“This memo is not a plea for legitimate intelligence and seems to endorse discrimination against Muslims,” says Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. In a letter to state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw, three Texas faith leaders have called for an investigation. The leaders say they find “troubling ... the lack of predicate for Reasonable Suspicion before Islamic and Leftist groups are to be spied upon in the course of their constitutionally protected civic activities.”

Serious as those implications are, the bulletin has a decidedly Keystone Kops: Kounter-Terror Squad flavor to it.

The memo suggests that terrorists have deployed lobbyists to turn Americans into pro-terror jihadists. “A number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah [sic] law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations. ... The threats to Texas are significant.”

Who are these terror-loving lobbyists? The bulletin names names: The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil-liberties group; the peace organization ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism); and the International Action Center, a group opposing imperialism and militarism founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

“Law enforcement should be aware of activities in their area,” the memo advises.

If it sounds like the fusion center analysis was based on right-wing Web sites prone to conspiracy-mongering, that’s because it was. Citations include an article on HumanEvents.com by the author of such books as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs; and a review of Stealth Jihad on FrontPage magazine’s Web site.

It gets weirder. The author of the weekly Prevention Awareness Bulletin is James Johnson, son of Congressman Sam Johnson, a Republican who represents Collin County. James Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller, have received at least $1 million in no-bid contracts from Collin County since 2004 to design and run the fusion system.

James Johnson and Miller declined e-mailed requests to comment, but Collin County spokesman Tim Wyatt downplayed the significance of the memo.

“The bulletin didn’t direct any agency to investigate or target anybody,” he said. “I don’t think fire marshals in North Texas are out hunting for radical terrorists.” He did say that the county would review the sources and how the document was written.

Wyatt sent the Observer two January issues of the bulletin to show that most were concerned with more sober topics. One of the January bulletins does steer clear of the Muslim Menace altogether, discussing the law-enforcement implications of failing banks and progress made in preparing for flu epidemics. But the other, dated Jan. 22, includes a 12-point “Suicide Bombing Indicator Checklist.” FYI: Watch out for “inappropriate attire,” “sweating,” “mumbling,” and, of course, “last-minute indulgence in ‘sin’.”

link to article.....

Thursday, the Collin County Commissioners Court voted against a motion to, "Request consideration and action for commissioners court approval to allow Homeland Security to submit a proposal with the University of Texas at Dallas to the United States Air Force for a information sharing program, funds to be disbursed from UT Dallas from grant funds provided by the United States Air Force in the amount of $400,000.00 beneficial to the Collin County Fusion Center operations and further authorize Kelley Stone to sign and submit a letter of commitment to UT Dallas on behalf of Collin county."

The grant request stated that, "Kelley Stone will manage the project" and that "The level-of-effort research and development is to be done by Dr. Johnson of ADB Consulting, as requested by UTD."

This grant request was on the court's consent agenda but was pulled for discussion by Commissioner Joe Jaynes because the request mentioned that the R&D in the grant program would be performed by Dr. James Johnson of ADB Consulting.

Jaynes said he would not vote any more funds that would go to ADB Consulting until he was briefed on the issues he's heard about. He asked Frank Ybarbo, the County Purchasing Agent to look into allegations outlined in a vendor's letter to the county that raised accusations of nepotism by ADB.

Last week, The Collin County Observer published a letter from Sypherlink that accused ADB and Dr. Bob Johnson of awarding an $80 thousand contract to Johnson's brother-in-law based solely on favoritism. Dr. Johnson is married to Anita Miller, the manager of the Fusion Center and is the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson.

Over the past 6 years, Collin County has paid ADB over $1.1 million in 'sole source', no bid contracts for the management of the North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS)

On a motion to approve the grant request, the court split on a 2-2 vote, thereby defeating the motion. Judge Self and Commissioner Hoagland voted "yes" Jaynes and Ward voted "No". Commissioner Matt Shaheen did not attend the court meeting.

The consent agenda also included getting court support for filing a grant request with 4th Congressional District Congressman Ralph Hall for a grant to fund, "operations, maintenance, and project support for the North Central Texas Fusion System." No dollar figure was attached to the grant request item.

This request for grant passed without discussion.

Bill

ADB charged with keeping it all in the family

The North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) is an intelligence and preparedness operation financed by federal Homeland Security and bio-terrorism grants and run by Collin County's Homeland Security Department.

The prime contractor to the Fusion Center is ADB Consulting, a small company based in Santa Fe, NM and owned by the husband and wife team of Dr. Robert Johnson and Anita Miller. Robert or as he is known, "Dr. Bob", is the son of Plano's Congressman Sam Johnson. For the last several years, ADB has won a series of "no bid" contracts from the county totaling over $1.1 million to set up the databases and programming for the NCTFS.

Last year, ADB consulting issued a request for bids to subcontract a portion of the database conversion for the Fusion Center. According to sources who I've spoken with, two companies responded to the estimated $80,000 bid request.

One, Sypherlink, is a mid-sized company out of Dublin, OH that specializes in database converting and merging, with a history of doing work for Homeland Security.

The other, Bassham and Associates was a small, unincorporated operation sharing a West Texas post office box address with a beauty salon and a defunct surveying business.

The Collin County Observer has obtained a copy of a letter of protest, dated September 6, 2007 from Sypherlink addressed to Kelley Stone, the Collin County Director of Homeland Security and the NCTFS and to the County Purchasing Agent, Frank Ybarbo.

In the letter, Sypherlink charges that Bassham and Associates is nothing more than a one man operation operating out of the home of Elbert Bassham and that Anita and Dr. Bob Johnson awarded the bid to Bassham in violation of Federal Homeland Security Grant Management Guidelines.

Elbert Bassham is the brother of Anita Johnson, the co-owner of ADB consulting.

In their letter, Sypherlink points out a page from ADB's now defunct website that is headlined,"Elbert Launches Strategic Services Business."

ADB's web page goes on to state, "Anita's brother has launched Bassham and Associates strategic Services (BASS). BASS provides software products and services used by academic and business organizations to implement plans and analyze performance."

At the time when ADB awarded the contract to BASS, Elbert Bassham was a full time employee at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. Bassham retired from Sul Ross on September 14, 2007, to work "in computer programming". Bassham was quoted as saying he would continue to live in Marfa and that, "I am now subcontracting to a corporation and working on a server in Dallas."

ADB announces that Anita's brother Elbert has founded Bassham & Assoc	Robert Johnson, Anita Miller and Elbert Bassham at Lake Tahoe	Congressman Sam Johnson (R-Plano)

Bassham and Associates web site even bears an uncanny resemblance to the home page of the North Central Texas Fusion System.

NCTFS website	Bassham & Assoc website

Sypherlink's letter quotes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Financial Grant Management Guide:
"No official or employee of a State or unit of local government or a non-governmental recipient/subrecipient shall participate personally through decisions, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise in any proceeding, application, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, award, cooperative agreement, claim, controversy, or other particular matter in which award funds (including program income or other funds generated by Federally funded activities) are used, where to his/her knowledge, he/she or his/her immediate family, partners, organization other than a public agency in which he/she is serving as an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee, or any person or organization with whom he/she is negotiating or has any arrangement concerning prospective employment, has a financial interest, or has less than an arms-length transaction."

In their complaint to the County, Sypherlink accuses ADB of:

• Conflict of interest in that ADB awarded the contract to the brother of a co-owner of ADB.
• Awarding the contract to an unqualified vendor since BASS has no experience in law enforcement data bases or in any database data discovery. Sypherlink also wrote that after D&B search on Bassham and Associates, they could not find that BASS was a registered business in any of the 50 United States.
• Unfair competition in that ADB gave BASS favorable information, positioning and bid scoring. due to its relationship with the owners of ADB.

Sypherlink's letter was dated September 6, 2007 and was addressed to both the County Purchasing Agent and the director of the Fusion Center. A search of Commissioners Court agendas and minutes since September, 2007 turns up no sign of any action by the commissioners to address or investigate Sypherlink's accusations.

To the contrary, even after receiving the complaint, the Collin County Commissioners Court continued to award 'no-bid' contracts to ADB consulting.

Since September of 2007, the court has awarded 3 additional 'no-bid' contracts to ADB worth a total of $311,000.

According to check registers published on the county website, Collin County paid ADB consulting $556,123.51 in fiscal year 2008 for consulting, maintenance and software for the North Texas Fusion Center. All funds paid ADB were for 'no bid' services.

Responding to a open records request, the Collin County Auditor reported that since 2004, the county has paid a total of $1,139,245.77 in no-bid contracts to ADB.

Since the Collin County Observer began coverage of the relationship between ADB and the Fusion Center, ADB has taken down its website and the County has placed a "Request for Bid" for a general contractor for the Fusion Center.

The bid process is ongoing with a closing date of March 12, 2009.

Bill

NOTES:

Sypherlink letter to Kelley Stone, dated September 6, 2007

Screen shots of ADB and BASS web sites ca. September, 2007

CCO Coverage of Fusion Center:
Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Code Red: better late than never - or is it?, CCO, Apr. 2008

"It should be obvious with the constant news of increased violence in Mexico that Texas needs law enforcement to focus on real criminal threats instead of targeting religious minorities and groups with unpopular political opinions."

"The North Central Texas Fusion Center should be reviewed to determine whether it can contribute to the serious public safety mission of Texas or not."
Rebecca Bernhardt, ACLU TX Policy Director

After the Collin County Observer published "Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom" yesterday, the national office of the ACLU in Washington DC issued a press release calling the "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" written and distributed by the North Central Texas Fusion Center, "the latest example of inappropriate police intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists for investigation.""
Bill

“The Texas fusion center’s bulletin shows an unhealthy disregard for constitutional rights and democratic processes”.

“It demonstrates the lack of professionalism that exists at fusion centers and the severe lack of oversight at the state, local and federal levels."
Michael German, ACLU National Security Policy Counsel and former FBI Agent

==================================
Fusion Center Encourages Improper Investigations Of Lobbying Groups And Anti-War Activists (2/25/2009)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mandy Simon media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – A Texas fusion center’s “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” made public last night is the latest example of inappropriate police intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists for investigation. The North Central Texas Fusion System bulletin states that it is “imperative for law enforcement officers to report” the activities of lobbying groups, Muslim civil rights organizations and anti-war protest groups in their areas.

“This memo is not a plea for legitimate intelligence, and seems to endorse discrimination against Muslims,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The idea that the tolerance advocated by the groups being targeted would be treated as a menace to American security demonstrates a disregard for civil liberties and a disdain for democracy itself. The kind of indiscriminate and unlawful investigations this bulletin calls for always results in a chilling effect on free speech and association.”

The federal government has facilitated the growth of a network of fusion centers since 9/11 to expand information collection and sharing practices among law enforcement agencies, the private sector and the intelligence community. There are currently 70 fusion centers in the United States.

"It should be obvious with the constant news of increased violence in Mexico that Texas needs law enforcement to focus on real criminal threats instead of targeting religious minorities and groups with unpopular political opinions." Rebecca Bernhardt, ACLU TX Policy Director said, "The North Central Texas Fusion Center should be reviewed to determine whether it can contribute to the serious public safety mission of Texas or not."

Proponents have claimed all fusion center personnel receive civil rights training, and that this training is sufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans living in the communities where fusion centers operate, but this is obviously not the case. The ACLU has long warned that ambiguities regarding who controls these fusion centers and a complete lack of oversight over their intelligence activities would lead to violations like this.

“The Texas fusion center’s bulletin shows an unhealthy disregard for constitutional rights and democratic processes,” said Michael German, ACLU National Security Policy Counsel and former FBI Agent. “It demonstrates the lack of professionalism that exists at fusion centers and the severe lack of oversight at the state, local and federal levels. According to its website, North Central Texas Fusion System bulletins are disseminated to thousands of people in over a hundred different agencies, and this report directs law enforcement officers to ‘report’ on the political activities of advocacy groups. The web of connections it weaves – drawing parallels between Muslim civil liberties groups, lobbying organizations, peace activists, hip hop bands, a former congresswoman and even the U.S. Treasury Department – would be comical if not for the real consequences that these organizations and individuals might face.”

In 2007, the ACLU released a report entitled, “What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers?” which was updated last year. The report identifies specific concerns with fusion centers, including their ambiguous lines of authority, the troubling role of private corporations, the participation of the military, the use of data mining and the excessive secrecy surrounding the centers As a national trend continues to close down public information about this domestic intelligence network, it continues to grow out of control.Recent revelations of the Department of Homeland Security’s role in the Maryland State Police Department’s surveillance of peace groups have deepened the ACLU’s concerns, particularly because a DHS intelligence analyst is reportedly assigned to the North Central Texas Fusion System.

To read the ACLU's report on fusion centers, go to:www.aclu.org/fusion

Tucked away in a rented room at the Collin County Sheriff's office is a computer operation called the North Central Texas Fusion System.

According to its website, "The Fusion System is a data sharing and analysis system primarily focused on the prevention and early warning of natural, accidental and intentional disasters. The Fusion System is also used to support emergency responses, field operations, and investigations."

One of about 58 Fusion Centers nationwide, the NTFC is envisioned as a response to the call for better sharing of information and communications between different law enforcement agencies and first responders in the wake of the 911 terrorist attack.

The computers at the NCTFS are designed to not only share law enforcement and weather data, but to merge thousands of public, government and commercial databases into a tool that can, "detect and graphically display relationships between people, places, and events". In other words, to connect the dots on both demographic trends as well as on an individual's movements and communications.

The NCTFS publishes a weekly newsletter, the "Prevention Awareness Bulletin". According to the Fusion Center, it is distributed to over 1,500 individuals from over 200 different agencies.

Last week's Prevention Awareness Bulletin included a story titled, "Middle Eastern Terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish."

The article warned law enforcement agencies to be "aware of and report" the legal activities of legal Muslim organizations under the pretext that these groups are lobbying to turn, "public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations."

It's unbelievable that a government financed intelligence operation is asking the police to report perfectly legal political activities of American citizens.

The article weaves together a few facts and internet rumors to paint a picture of a American Muslim goal to replace Christianity with Islam. In one case it quotes Omar Ahmad, a founder of The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as telling a San Ramon Valley Herald reporter, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

CAIR and Ahmad deny he ever made the statement.

The newsletter article then uses that quote to infer a conspiracy to dominate American culture with, "Taken in that context, pushing an aggressive, pro-Islam agenda that's been increasingly successful in recent years takes on a new light". There follows such Islamic "agenda items" as foot baths in the cab drivers break room at an airport in Indiana.

In one paragraph the Fusion Center even accuses the United States Treasury Department with complicity by hosting a conference on the use of Shariah economic doctrine.

The article makes no real charge of terrorist activity by any mainstream Muslim organization, instead it fans the flames of Islamophobia by casting a very wide net of innuendo over the legitimate political activities of Americans who practice Islam. Terrorism is not a Christian vs Muslim battle, and attempts to fuel such fears lead only to prejudice, hate and fear.

Is the Fusion Center using huge computer systems teamed up with an intelligence network that has no real oversight to monitor protected political lobbying? It would seem so.

The implications for our American freedoms are chilling. Americans rightly cherish their liberty and their rights of religion, speech and to petition their government.

The article ends with a list of hyperlinked footnotes. Almost all links lead to far right wing anti-Muslim or neo-con activist sites. None are to official government agencies, which casts a real doubt on the validity of the intelligence gathering abilities of not only the newsletter, but the Fusion Center itself.

Bill

Notes:

The Prevention Awareness Bulletin, NCTFS Feb. 19, 2009

North Central Texas Fusion System homepage

Fusion Center Guidelines, US Justice Department, Aug. 2006

Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress, Congressional Research Service, Jan. 2008

Centers Tap Into Personal Databases, Apr. 2008, The Washington Post

Narrowing the Focus, Texas Technology, Sept. 2007

Information Fusion Centers and Privacy, EPIC, Jun. 2008

What's wrong with Fusion Centers, ACLU, Dec. 2007

Fusion Centers in Texas: "What we have here is a failure to communicate", Grits for Breakfast, Jul, 2007

Fusion centers' might be scary if they actually work, Grits for Breakfast, Apr. 2008

Four potential risks to intelligence fusion centers, Homeland Stupidity, Jul. 2007

CCO Coverage of Fusion Center:
County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Code Red: better late than never - or is it?, CCO, Apr. 2008

The Prevention Awareness Bulletin is edited by Anita Johnson - the Anita in "Anita and Dr. Bob" or ADB Consulting which has earned over a million dollars in federal grant money building the NCTFS. Anita and Dr. Bob (James R. Johnson) are the daughter-in-law and son of US Congressman Sam Johnson.

Since the newsletter is distributed in MS Word, it is possible to get information about the computer used to create the document. This last issue shows the newsletter was written on a computer owned by James R Johnson, Sony Electronics, Inc.

After I wrote Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center earlier this month, I sent an Open Records request to Collin County asking for a list of all county payments to ADB consulting.

The response was astounding, especially since my search of Commissioners Court records finds no record of any competitive bid ever being awarded to ADB.

ADB stands for Anita and Dr. Bob. Dr. Robert Johnson is the son of Plano's Congressman Sam Johnson. Anita Miller is Dr. Bob's wife. Together they own and are ADB Consulting.

On the Fusion Center's website, Dr. Bob is listed as the Fusion Center's Architect, and Anita Miller as the Fusion Center Manager. In a recent Fusion Center mailing, Dr. Bob is also described as the Acting Intelligence Analyst. Neither Anita Miller nor Dr. Bob Johnson live anywhere near Collin County - their home is in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

According to the County Auditor, the payments to ADB are as follows:

• In fiscal year 2004, $20,156.60
• In fiscal year 2005, $81,486.69
• In fiscal year 2006, $264,324.72
• In fiscal year 2007, $195,084.50
• In fiscal year 2008, $556,123.51
• In fiscal year 2009 (to date), $22,069.75

For a grand total of $1,139,245.77

I conducted an extensive review of all commissioners court meeting minutes for 2006, 2007, and 2008 - looking for any contracts between ADB and the county.

In 2006, requests were made on March 28, and on May 2 for no-bid contract approval for a sum total of $144,000.

Almost all of the funding was for the, "Pursuit of Directed Funding to aid in the advancement of homeland Security capability" - in simpler language, the money was so that ADB would seek state and federal funding for more grants to pay for more ADB contracts. On both occasions, the court approved the no-bid contracts on 4-1 votes. Commissioner Joe Jaynes voted 'no' on both occasions.

On February 13, 2007 a no-bid request was made for $120,000 for ADB. The request was approved 5-0. Commissioner Hatchell asked for more information about ADB and the Fusion Center, and was promised that another discussion would be on a March agenda. That discussion never happened.

On July 23, 2007 another no-bid request was made for a contract with ADB for $180,000. This time Commissioner Hoagland asked for more information and was promised there would be a presentation at the next workshop. On this contract Commissioner Jaynes was again the sole 'no' vote.

On August 28, 2007 $52,000 was requested and approved, without dissent, for a no-bid contract with ADB.

On March 26, 2008 a huge no-bid contract to ADB for consulting services was approved without discussion or dissent. The amount approved was $253,637.

On April 29, 2008 a $130,000 no-bid contract request for translation software with ADB was pulled off the agenda, and never resubmitted.

On November 18, 2008, a $5,000 no-bid contract for software integration consulting to ADB was approved unanimously, without discussion.

And on December 9, 2008 the court approved a no-bid contract to ADB for $36,500 for software maintenance. Mr. Jaynes was the sole 'no' vote.

During the period from 2006-2008 that I was able to check the minutes, the county wrote checks totaling $1,037,602.48 to ADB, while only $802,137 was awarded to the Johnsons by an open vote of the commissioners court.

The accounting for the disbursements to ADB is also interesting, probably tracking the grant funds.

In 2004 and 2005, almost all the payouts to ADB were charged to a "Health Related Services" account number; in 2006, to "Consulting Services; in 2007 to "Educational Services"; and in 2008, to "Misc. Software", "Professional Services" and "Consultants".

County Commissioners are quick to point out that most of the money for the Fusion Center was from federal bio-terrorism and homeland security grants. No one yet has come forth with a plan to fund the Fusion Center when the grant money runs out.

It should also be noted that funding for Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" was also federal grant money.

Bill

On the agenda for the December 9 Commissioners' court is item #4f2, "Grant exemption from the competitive bidding process...[to] approve a Maintenance Services Agreement with ADB Consulting, LLC for Fusion System Operation and Maintenance for an annual amount of $36,400..."

ADB Consulting is based in Santa Fe, NM. ADB stands for "Anita and Dr. Bob". Its partners are Dr. Robert Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller. They describe themselves as consultants and options traders.

According to check registers published on the county website, Collin County paid ADB consulting $556,123.51 in fiscal year 2008 for consulting, maintenance and software for the North Texas Fusion Center.

The North Texas Fusion Center is an intelligence gathering and data sharing system used in the 16 county North Texas area. It is funded mostly by state and federal grants. The largest grant is the "State Homeland Security Grant" which is financed with federal funds allocated under the "Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program" created by the US Patriot Act.

Dr. Robert Johnson of ADB Consulting is the son of Congressman Sam Johnson. Congressman Sam Johnson voted for the Patriot Act.

It's not surprising that Anita and Dr. Bob's website points to the website of "our favorite congressman" - Congressman Sam Johnson.

Bill

Previous CCO posts on the North Texas Fusion Center:

Apr. 18, 2008 Code Red: better late than never - or is it?

May 4, 2008 While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?

The Center for American Progress has issued a report listing the nation's 101 most dangerous chemical facilities.

The report titled, Chemical Security 101,What You Don’t Have Can’t Leak, or Be Blown Up by Terrorists, placed The North Texas Municipal Water District's Wylie plant on the list because it uses and stores large amounts of chlorine gas.

According to the CAP report, the Wylie plant puts over 2 million people at risk in case of a major accident, sabotage or terrorist attack.

Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas with a strong, irritating odor. It is heavier than air, meaning a release plume would travel across the ground, putting a large area at risk.

The federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) notes that when "liquid chlorine is released, it quickly turns into a gas that stays close to the ground and spreads rapidly."

Chlorine is used in making other chemicals, as a disinfectant, in bleaching, and for purifying water and sewage. Acute exposure can severely burn the eyes and skin, causing permanent damage, and may cause throat irritation, tearing, coughing, nose bleeds, chest pain, fluid buildup in the lungs (pulmonary edema), and death. Chronic exposure can damage the teeth and irritate the lungs, causing bronchitis, coughing, and shortness of breath. A single high exposure can permanently damage the lungs.

The NTMWD uses large amounts of chlorine to purify drinking water. The chlorine generally is delivered to Wylie by rail tanker cars on lines that run through residential communities.

Chlorine: A terrorist's weapon?

• Chlorine gas is so deadly it was used by as a poison gas chemical weapon by German forces in WWI.
• Iraqi insurgents have blown up tanker trucks of chlorine to attack American and coalition forces.
• Wikipedia lists 13 cases of chlorine gas bombings by insurgents in Iraq.
• Last year a 300# tank of chlorine was stolen from a water purification plant in Montgomery County.

The CAP notes that, "Homeland Security and numerous security experts have repeatedly warned that terrorists could use industrial chemicals as improvised weapons of mass destruction. Current chemical security efforts, however, are inadequate to protect workplaces and communities.

"Indeed, temporary standards enacted two years ago (and set to expire in 2009) focus almost entirely on physical security measures, such as adding gates and guards. These measures, however worthy, cannot assure protection against a concerted attack, insider sabotage, or catastrophic release. Nor do they protect communities along chemical delivery routes. More than 90 percent of the 101 most dangerous facilities ship or receive their highest-hazard chemical by railcar or truck."

In 2005, 9 men were killed and over 500 injured by a poisonous cloud of chlorine gas was released after a train wreck in South Carolina.

According to the CAP report, the NTMWD could lower the danger level by replacing chlorine gas with liquid bleach or by generating bleach on-site, with ozone or ultraviolet light as appropriate.

According to information on its website (dated, 2005), the NTMWD is engaged in, "A preliminary engineering study for the utilization of ozonation as a primary disinfectant at the NTMWD Water Treatment Plants has been authorized by the NTMWD Board of Directors to meet the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Stage 2 Disinfection Byproducts rules effective 2012."

I understand that since that website was posted, the NTMWD has committed to using ozone to replace much of it's chlorine.

Bill

Notes:

Chemical Security 101, What You Don’t Have Can’t Leak, or Be Blown Up by Terrorists, The Center for American Progress, November, 2008

Map showing locations for the 101 most dangerous chemical facilities

The Center for American Progress website

North Texas Municipal Water District website

Before 2006, the Collin County Sheriff's Department had a problem. They were training new deputies, only to see them leave for better paying police jobs in Plano, McKinney, Frisco and Allen. Experienced deputies were leaving too - for promotions to better paying city police positions. Recruiting new deputies was not going well either; the top recruits were being grabbed by higher paying police departments.

Collin County was offering their officers a pay scale that was comparable to other local counties - in fact the county paid better than other counties in the region. That wasn't the problem.

The rapidly growing local, suburban city police departments were recruiting the best, most experienced officers they could find. The cities were willing to pay. Some made a very conscious decision that they would pay the highest scale in the region. Their strategy worked.

In some of the higher ranks, the county was paying a lower maximum salary than the cities' starting pay.

Many of those best and brightest lured away to the cities were Collin County Deputy Sheriffs.

Finally, in 2006, the Commissioners Court stopped the drain of our deputies. The court was persuaded to set a new comparison standard for law enforcement wages. The new standard compared Collin County wages with BOTH local city and county benchmarks.

The result was a substantial increase in deputy sheriff wages - averaging about 18%.

The strategy worked. Since 2006, the sheriff's department has enjoyed a remarkably low turnover (2.2% last year for sworn patrol officers) and most importantly, the county has lost zero deputies to local city police departments since the 2006 raise.

In the years prior to the 2006 increase, at least 10 deputies left to work in either Allen, Frisco, Plano or McKinney.

No longer are our best officers being forced to seek better pay - no longer are we the training ground for city police forces who "cherry pick" the top deputies.

Instead, Collin County is doing its own cherry picking. Many of our new deputies come from the CCCCD campus police. Why? We pay better, so we get the "pick of the litter".

Unfortunately, last year many experienced deputies received only a 1% increase, even though the Commissioners and elected officials got 5%.

2009 Deputy Sheriff Comparison (click to enlarge)

Now this year, Judge Self is signaling that he wants to revert to a comparison of wages only to local county sheriffs. This change will result in lower wages and will begin again the practice raiding of our deputies by higher paying city police.

Self is taking a short-sighted view. He only sees a very low turnover and high wages compared to other counties. He is not looking at the low turnover as an indicator that the salary policy is a unqualified success. He is apparently not seeing the potential loss of our best crime fighters as a problem.

No matter what size increase is finally approved, it is important that the precedent of using city/county benchmarks be preserved. Unlike some other positions, the county competes directly with the cities for certified peace officers. To loose sight of the reality of the job market will weaken, not strengthen the preservation of just law and order.

I understand and agree with the Judge's premise that all budget line items should be looked at hard for potential savings. However, budgets are balancing acts, and ultimately they are about choices.

The choice here is clear.

Do Collin County citizens deserve the best local law enforcement officers out there? Or do our taxpayers have to settle for whatever is left over after the city police have enticed away our outstanding performers?

Bill

NOTES:

The 2006 Sheriff's presentation on salaries is here

The 2009 County HR presentation on Law Enforcement salaries is here

Plano eliminating 50 vacant positions to ease budget woes

Monday, July 7, 2008
By Theodore Kim / The Dallas Morning News

The city of Plano plans to eliminate 50 vacant positions to help close a projected budget shortfall, city officials said today.

Administrators say the cuts, which involve cutting 43 full-time jobs and 7 part-time positions, could save the city as much as $3.1 million annually.

Those cuts include trimming from police and fire services. At a special session this evening, the Plano City Council is expected to approve the elimination of 11 police officers and six firefighters. Cutting civil service positions, like in the police and fire departments, requires council action.

None of the positions being cut are currently filled, and city officials stressed that citizens will witness no immediate impact in services.

Still, the cuts mark the latest dark cloud for a city that, like many communities in the area, is being squeezed by high fuel costs, a rough housing market and other forces.

Plano, which is required to pass a new budget by September, faces an estimated $17 million gap. That gap will eventually widen in future years unless the city acts.

read more....

The Collin County Commissioners Court will hold a special session this Tuesday evening at the Murphy City Hall. The Court will convene at 6:00PM.

Included on the agenda for the "special session" is discussion and possible action on the creation of a County Toll Road Authority (CTRA).

CTRA's were created by the last legislature to allow a county to claim a road from TxDOT and to contract for tolls on that road. CTRA's have first right to a right of way. They have primary responsibility and the first option to finance, construct, and operate a toll project located within the county. TxDOT can not stop or hinder a CTRA from constructing its own tollroad.

Also on the agenda:
A presentation by the Collin County Adventure Camp
A presentation by the North Texas History Center
A presentation on the County's "Code Red" technology and suggested improvements
A briefing by Homeland Security on videoconferencing software for the "Tandberg System".
An update by NTTA on the Dallas North Tollway extension.
A discussion on the possible alignment of the next phase of the DNT extension.

The court is also scheduled to go into Executive (secret) Session to discuss how it will deal with its response to the County Auditor's request for an Attorney General's Opinion on the auditors ability to audit computerized information systems.

Bill

After the storms and tornado that hit Plano on April 10, the City of Plano came under some criticism for not sounding the civil defense sirens. A couple of weeks after the storms, the media reported that Plano would be more proactive and "err on the side of caution" when making the decision to sound the sirens.

According to press reports, Plano suffered over a million dollars in damage from the April 10th storm.

The Dallas Morning News reported that "Plano officials who didn't sound sirens during storm relied on TV weather reports." - the Plano Star Courier gave a kinder version reporting that, "On April 10, early on a Thursday morning, the stormy weather which had caused so much havoc and destruction in Plano did not warrant a warning signal from the Department of Public Safety."

However, one aspect of this story seems to have escaped the notice of the press - the role of the North Central Texas Fusion Center.

According to the FAQ the North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) has posted online, its purpose is,

• "Facilitates prevention, early warning and coordinated response to natural, accidental, and intentional disasters"
• "Expands the insight of law enforcement, public health, fire, and emergency management personnel in the field, responding to emergencies, and investigating incidents"

The Fusion System is primarily focused on the prevention and early warning of natural, accidental and intentional disasters in the region."
NCTFS website

No one seems to be asking the questions, "Why have millions been poured into an early warning system, if local officials still believe their best information is from Channel 8?"

"What are those guys doing out there?"

According to the "Project Innovation" fact sheet, "As lessons learned from 9/11 and Katrina, the project looks to provide multiple and linked communications systems such as microwave radio, secure fiber that does not flow through commercial telephone switches, leased fiber, wireless networks, satellite phones and ham radio networks. These layered, linked communication systems are interfaced to take advantage of high accessible bandwidth whenever the particular systems are available... Information is shared across law enforcement, health, government offices and intelligence transportation to authorized personnel – providing the right information to the right person at the right time."

Really? Then why is Plano using the old rabbit ears on the TV set to warn its citizens? Is Plano, the largest city in Collin County, not the "right person"?

I ask again, "What are those guys doing out there?"

Last month I wrote on the failure of the reverse 911 (CodeRED) to warn many people of upcoming storms.

CodeRED is a part of and linked to the county's Homeland Security Department and to the NCTFS.

Bill

Early warning system in Collin County not helpful for some

WFAA Channel 8
April 18th, 2008

Steve Stoler reports on how the Collin County early warning system proved unhelpful for some residents during the recent severe weather.

I was sitting at home last night at about 10:20 PM when my cell phone rang with a very odd number in the caller ID. I stared at it for a moment trying to figure out who I knew with a phone number of 1-999-911-9999.

Curiosity overcame my better judgment and I answered the phone. The call was from the Collin County's new CodeRED system, to inform me that the Sheriff's Department was warning citizens of a severe thunderstorm that was to cross Collin County at 9:20 PM.

So, I received an emergency call telling me to expect severe thunderstorms with possibly large hail about an hour after the storms had already passed. By the time I got the call, the storms were almost completely past Collin County and a real threat to Rockwall, Hunt and Fannin Counties.

I thought of Dorothy getting a call to run for the tornado shelter an hour after watching munchkins dancing in Oz.

A few months ago, I had signed up with the county's brand new CodeRED system. The county's website promised, "a free, ultra high-speed telephone notification system that can deliver pre-recorded messages to home, business or cell phones in the event of a natural disaster or emergency."

The website explained the program - "CodeRED gives county officials a way to get emergency messages out to residents and businesses at a rate of 60,000 calls an hour, and can target calls to specific geographic areas for emergencies such as evacuation notices, flooding or a public health crisis.

The free service went online in August, and taps a variety of commercial phone databases for its initial sources of contact information, according to Kelley Stone, Collin County's Director of Homeland Security."

The CodeRED program is financed from state grant money given to the county's Homeland Security Department.

The Homeland Security Department gets a lot of grants. It has gotten millions of dollars in Federal and State grant money and has become a large operation with its own state of the art computerized, communications systems and control center, called the Fusion Center.

CodeRED is part of the Fusion System, housed in the North Central Texas Fusion Center, formerly called the Emergency Operations Center. Fusion operates out of a new facility financed by federal homeland security and bio-terrorism grants. Its goals include gathering intelligence, sharing intelligence, and coordinating emergency response to epidemics, terrorism incidents and disasters. On it's website the fusion system describes its purpose as, "the prevention and early warning of natural, accidental and intentional disasters in the region. The Fusion System is also used to support emergency response, field personnel, and investigations."

The Fusion concept has its critics - some who see it as a waste of money and some who see a threat to civil liberties. Last January, the Congressional Research Service issued a report critical of Fusion Centers. The report raised concerns over a lack of national standards in training and in mission of Fusion Centers. The CRS also pointed out that while the fusion centers are designed to prevent crime and terrorism, they are really more reactive than proactive - in other words they rarely predict, instead they respond to threats either real or perceived. The report also detailed concerns over civil liberties, privacy, effectiveness and sustainability.

"Fusion centers are somewhat controversial and mysterious — the public does not know much about what goes on inside. Privacy advocates and civil-liberties groups are concerned about the risks of consolidating threat information, but law enforcement authorities say they expect the benefits to outweigh the risks."
Federal Computer Week Online, Feb. 18, 2008

Some in the county have also questioned the sustainability of Homeland Security programs and Fusion Centers.

Most often, these programs and centers are created using federal and state grant money. But grant money often is not available to keep the projects running over time. Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff warned local officials of this when he stated, "We are not signing up to fund fusion centers in perpetuity. But we do want to use these grants to target resources to help fusion centers make the capital investment and training investment to come to maturity. And then, of course, we expect every community to continue to invest in sustaining these very important law enforcement tools." In other words, the feds will build them, but local tax dollars need to support them.

The volatility of grant financing is easily seen by looking at the county's budget and staffing levels for homeland security over the past few years.

Did terrorism threats become less dangerous in 2008? No, federal funding became harder to get as war related deficits ate up funds used for local projects.

These numbers do not tell the whole story. For example, the bio-terrorism budget for 2008 is about $48,000 and employs 12 people. What's not mentioned in the budget is a million dollar federal grant that is paying these wages. (Note: the 2007 staffing includes Courthouse Security - the 2008 number includes both bio-terrorism and courthouse security. Data from the 2005,2006,2007 and 2008 Collin County Budgets)

Bill

Notes:
Collin County's CodeRED homepage

The North Central Texas Fusion System homepage

Fusion Center Guidelines, USDOJ, 2006

Information Fusion Centers and Privacy

Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress, Congressional Research Service, Jan., 2008

A new threat, a new institution: The fusion center, Federal Computer Week, Feb., 2008

Fusion Centers in Texas: "What we have here is a failure to communicate", Grits for Breakfast, July 2007

Fusion centers' might be scary if they actually work, Grits for Breakfast, April 3, 2008

Four potential risks to intelligence fusion centers, Homeland Stupidity, July, 2007